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Compressible N-phase fluid mixture models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2026

Marco F.P. ten Eikelder*
Affiliation:
Institute for Mechanics, Computational Mechanics Group, Technical University of Darmstadt , Franziska-Braun-Str, 7, 64287, Darmstadt Germany
E. Harald van Brummelen
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven 5600MB, The Netherlands
Dominik Schillinger
Affiliation:
Institute for Mechanics, Computational Mechanics Group, Technical University of Darmstadt , Franziska-Braun-Str, 7, 64287, Darmstadt Germany
*
Corresponding author: Marco F.P. ten Eikelder, marco.eikelder@tu-darmstadt.de

Abstract

Fluid mixture models are essential for describing a wide range of physical phenomena, including wave dynamics and spinodal decomposition. However, there is a lack of consensus in the modelling of compressible mixtures, with limited connections between different classes of models. On the one hand, existing compressible two-phase flow models accurately describe wave dynamics, but do not incorporate phase separation mechanisms. On the other hand, phase-field technology in fluid dynamics consists of models incorporating spinodal decomposition; however, a general phase-field theory for compressible mixtures remains largely undeveloped. In this paper we take an initial step toward bridging the gap between compressible two-phase flow models and phase-field models by developing a theory for compressible, isothermal N-phase mixtures. Our theory establishes a system of reduced complexity by formulating N mass balance laws alongside a single momentum balance law, thereby naturally extending the Navier–Stokes Korteweg model to N phases and providing the Navier–Stokes Cahn–Hilliard/Allen–Cahn model for compressible mixtures. Key aspects of the framework include its grounding in continuum mixture theory and its preservation of thermodynamic consistency despite its reduced complexity.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Table 1. Comparison of the first-order versions of the three compressible models with three equations (for binary fluids).

Figure 1

Table 2. Comparison binary models. $^*$The model of Mukherjee & Gomez (2024) is equipped with an energy law when the source terms in the model are set to zero. $^{**}$The first-order systems match; see Remark7.3.