A unified framework for N-phase Navier-Stokes Cahn-Hilliard Allen-Cahn mixture models with non-matching densities

Abstract: Over the past few decades, numerous N-phase incompressible diffuse-interface flow models with non-matching densities have been proposed. Despite aiming to describe the same physics, these models are generally distinct, and an overarching modeling framework is absent. This paper provides a unified framework for N-phase incompressible Navier-Stokes Cahn-Hilliard Allen-Cahn mixture models with a single momentum equation. The framework naturally emerges from continuum mixture theory, exhibits an energy-dissipative structure, and is invariant to the choice of fundamental variables. This opens the door to exploring connections between existing N-phase models and facilitates the computation of N-phase flow models rooted in continuum mixture theory.