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Summary: Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 1998. 30:13965
Copyright c 1998 by Annual Reviews Inc. All rights reserved
DIFFUSE-INTERFACE METHODS
IN FLUID MECHANICS
D. M. Anderson1
and G. B. McFadden
Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division, National Institute of Standards
and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899; e-mail: mcfadden@nist.gov
A. A. Wheeler
Department of Mathematical Studies, University of Southampton, Highfield,
Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom; e-mail: aaw@maths.soton.ac.uk
KEY WORDS: diffuse interface, phase field, capillarity, surface tension, critical phenomena
ABSTRACT
We review the development of diffuse-interface models of hydrodynamics and
their application to a wide variety of interfacial phenomena. These models have
been applied successfully to situations in which the physical phenomena of inter-
est have a length scale commensurate with the thickness of the interfacial region
(e.g. near-critical interfacial phenomena or small-scale flows such as those oc-
curring near contact lines) and fluid flows involving large interface deformations
and/or topological changes (e.g. breakup and coalescence events associated with
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