Multi-component Cahn-Hilliard system with different boundary conditions in complex domains

Abstract

We propose an efficient phase-field model for multi-component Cahn-Hilliard (CH) systems in complex domains. The original multi-component Cahn-Hilliard system with a fixed phase is modified in order to make it suitable for complex domains in the Cartesian grid, along with contact angle or no mass flow boundary conditions on the complex boundaries. The proposed method uses a practically unconditionally gradient stable nonlinear splitting numerical scheme. Further, a nonlinear full approximation storage multigrid algorithm is used for solving semi-implicit formulations of the multi-component CH system, incorporated with an adaptive mesh refinement technique. The robustness of the proposed method is validated through various numerical simulations including multi-phase separations via spinodal decomposition, equilibrium contact angle problems, and multi-phase flows with a background velocity field in complex domains. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.