title: Phase-field theory of multicomponent incompressible Cahn-Hilliard liquids.
abstract: In this paper, a generalization of the Cahn-Hilliard theory of binary liquids is presented for multicomponent incompressible liquid mixtures. First, a thermodynamically consistent convection-diffusion-type dynamics is derived on the basis of the Lagrange multiplier formalism. Next, a generalization of the binary Cahn-Hilliard free-energy functional is presented for an arbitrary number of components, offering the utilization of independent pairwise equilibrium interfacial properties. We show that the equilibrium two-component interfaces minimize the functional, and we demonstrate that the energy penalization for multicomponent states increases strictly monotonously as a function of the number of components being present. We validate the model via equilibrium contact angle calculations in ternary and quaternary (four-component) systems. Simulations addressing liquid-flow-assisted spinodal decomposition in these systems are also presented.
authors: Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Allégaten 55, N-5007 Bergen, Norway and Wigner Research Centre for Physics, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary.
authors: Gyula I
authors: GI
authors: Tóth
authors: Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Allégaten 55, N-5007 Bergen, Norway.
authors: Mojdeh
authors: M
authors: Zarifi
authors: Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Allégaten 55, N-5007 Bergen, Norway.
authors: Bjørn
authors: B
authors: Kvamme