ELECTROWETTING: MODELING ANALYSIS AND COMPUTATION

The term electrowetting on dielectric refers to the local modification of the surface tension between two immiscible fluids via electric actuation. In this talk we introduce a diffuse interface model electrowetting and present an analysis of the arising system of equations. Moreover, we study discretization techniques for the problem. The model takes into account different material parameters on each phase and incorporates the most important physical processes, such as incompressibility, electrostatics and dynamic contact lines; necessary to properly reflect the relevant phenomena.

The arising nonlinear system couples the variable density incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for velocity and pressure with a Cahn-Hilliard type equation for the phase variable and chemical potential, a convection diffusion equation for the electric charges and a Poisson equation for the electric potential. Numerical experiments are presented, which illustrate the wide range of effects the model is able to capture, such as splitting and coalescence of droplets.