A phase field model for the mixture of two incompressible fluids and its approximation by a Fourier-spectral method

A phase field model for the mixture of two incompressible fluids is presented in this paper. The model is based oil an energetic variational formulation. It consists of a Navier-Stokes system (linear momentum equation) coupled with a Cahn-Hilliard equation (phase field equation) through an extra stress term and the transport term. The extra stress represents the (phase induced) capillary effect for the mixture due to the surface tension. A Fourier-spectral method for the numerical approximation of this system is proposed and analyzed. Numerical results illustrating the robustness and versatility of the model are presented. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.