Numerical study of buoyancy induced arrest of viscous coarsening

Abstract

The effect of buoyant forces on viscous coarsening is studied numerically. It is shown that at any time buoyant forces induce a vertical flow that scales like the Stokes velocity. This does not induce any noticeable change in the morphology of the coarsening microstructure under a value of the characteristic length of the pattern. Above this threshold, the pattern evolves toward a quasi 2D pattern and coarsening stops. The characteristic length is shown to scale like γ/(gΔρ), where γ is the surface tension and Δρ is the mass density difference between the phases.