Simulating the Effect of Shear Flow on Phase Morphology of Ternary Fluid Mixtures

Emulsions with multiple components are common in both natural systems and industrial processes. Many fabrication processes involve shear flow which affects the phase separation dynamics. An understanding of the domain morphology of sheared ternary emulsions is important for designing emulsion templates for porous materials such as membranes, energy storage materials, or tissue scaffolds. We present lattice Boltzmann simulations of phase-separating ternary mixtures under quiescent and sheared conditions. We show that at low shear, emulsion-like morphologies emerge, while at high shear, the mixture separates into bands aligned with the flow. The width of the bands depends on the shear rate and composition. The results demonstrate that shear can be used to control anisotropic domain formation in ternary mixtures, which provides strategies for fabricating structured materials from emulsion templates.