The existing lattice Boltzmann models for incompressible multiphase flows are mostly constructed with two distribution functions: one is the order parameter distribution function, which is used to track the interface between different phases, and the other is the pressure distribution function for solving the velocity field. In this paper, it is shown that in these models the recovered momentum equation is inconsistent with the target one: an additional force is included in the recovered momentum equation. The additional force has the following features. First, it is proportional to the macroscopic velocity. Second, it is zero in every single-phase region but is nonzero in the interface. Therefore it can be interpreted as an interfacial force. To investigate the effects of the additional interfacial force, numerical simulations are carried out for the problem of Rayleigh-Taylor instability, droplet splashing on a thin liquid film, and the evolution of a falling droplet under gravity. Numerical results demonstrate that, with the increase of the velocity or the Reynolds number, the additional interfacial force will gradually have an important influence on the interface and affect the numerical accuracy.

• Received 24 October 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.85.026704