A Two-Field Formulation for Surfactant Transport within the Algebraic Volume of Fluid Method

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel two-field numerical formulation for simulating surfactant transport in two-phase flows using the algebraic volume of fluid method, capturing interface dynamics and surfactant exchange processes.

Contribution

It develops a coupled two-field approach for insoluble and soluble surfactants within the algebraic volume of fluid framework, including boundary conditions for conservation and exchange.

Findings

Validated against analytical solutions

Accurately captures surfactant dynamics at interfaces

Handles large interface deformations effectively

Abstract

Surfactant transport plays an important role in many technical processes and industrial applications such as chemical reactors, microfluidics, printing and coating technology. High fidelity numerical simulations of two-phase flow phenomena reveal rich insights into the flow dynamics, heat, mass and species transport. In the present study, a two-field formulation for surfactant transport within the algebraic volume of fluid method is presented. The slight diffuse nature of representing the interface in the algebraic volume of fluid method is utilized to track the concentration of surfactant at the interface as a volumetric concentration. Transport of insoluble and soluble surfactants is investigated by tracking two different concentrations of the surfactant, one within the bulk of the liquid and the other one at the interface. These two transport equations are in turn coupled by source terms considering the ad-/desorption processes at a liquid-gas interface. Appropriate boundary conditions at a solid-fluid interface are formulated to ensure surfactant conservation, while also enabling to study the ad-/desorption processes at a solid-fluid interface. The developed numerical method is verified by comparing the numerical simulations with well-known analytical and numerical reference solutions. The presented numerical methodology offers a seamless integration of surfactant transport into the algebraic volume of fluid method, where the latter has many advantages such as volume conservation and an inherent ability of handling large interface deformations and topological changes.