A 2D lattice Boltzmann study on electrohydrodynamic drop deformation with the leaky dielectric theory

The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and electrohydrodynamics are both active subjects in fluid mechanics research in recent years. In this paper, we present a method to apply a multicomponent LBM to electrohydrodynamics studies. A series of drop deformation simulations under the influence of an electric field were carried out and the results are in good agreement with other theoretical and experimental studies. Given that no special treatment of fluid–fluid interfaces is required for multiphase/multicomponent LBM, our method could be an excellent alternative to electrohydrodynamics studies than traditional computational fluid dynamics methods. Further, our algorithm and simulation can be readily implemented to the more complex electrohydrodynamic systems. To our knowledge, this represents the first LBM study on electrohydrodynamics.