Simulation of Polymer Foaming using the Lattice Boltzmann Method.

This paper presents a 3D lattice Boltzmann model (LBM) for simulation of polymer foaming processes. The model incorporates many of the essential aspects of foaming phenomena: gas diffusion into nucleated bubbles, bubble dynamics and coalescence, surface tension, the stabilizing disjoining pressure between bubbles, and the non-Newtonian behavior of polymers. The model uses a free surface approach to reduce the two-phase (liquid-gas) problem to a single-phase liquid problem. The model is validated against the results of the Cell Model of Arefmanesh and Advani, and then results are presented that demonstrate the potential of the LBM model to predict various polymer foaming phenomena.