Abstract
A numerical method based on a phase-field modeling is evaluated for interface-tracking simulation of thermal liquid-vapor flows with phase change in micro-fluidics devices. The interface with a finite width is autonomously formed according to the free-energy theory. The phase-field method therefore needs no conventional elaborating algorithms for advection and reconstruction of the interfaces. From the numerical results of non-ideal fluid flows around a critical point in two dimensions, it is confirmed that the phase-field method can be useful for well understanding microscopic two-phase flows with heat and mass transfer across the interface with finite thickness, such as bubble nucleation on heater and cavitation around solid body.
