Simulation of nonideal gases and liquid-gas phase transitions by the lattice Boltzmann equation

We describe in detail a recently proposed lattice-Boltzmann model [X. Shan and H. Chen, Phys. Rev. E 47, 1815 (1993)] for simulating flows with multiple phases and components. In particular, the focus is on the modeling of one-component fluid systems which obey nonideal gas equations of state and can undergo a liquid-gas-type phase transition. The model is shown to be momentum conserving. From the microscopic mechanical stability condition, the densities in bulk liquid and gas phases are obtained as functions of a temperaturelike parameter. Comparisons with the thermodynamic theory of phase transitions show that the lattice-Boltzmann-equation model can be made to correspond exactly to an isothermal process. The density profile in the liquid-gas interface is also obtained as a function of the temperaturelike parameter and is shown to be isotropic. The surface tension, which can be changed independently, is calculated. The analytical conclusions are verified by numerical simulations.