A Non-Isothermal Chemical Lattice Boltzmann Model Incorporating Thermal Reaction Kinetics and Enthalpy Changes

The lattice Boltzmann method is an efficient computational fluid dynamics technique that can accurately model a broad range of complex systems. As well as single-phase fluids, it can simulate thermohydrodynamic systems and passive scalar advection. In recent years, it also gained attention as a means of simulating chemical phenomena, as interest in self-organization processes increased. This paper will present a widely-used and versatile lattice Boltzmann model that can simultaneously incorporate fluid dynamics, heat transfer, buoyancy-driven convection, passive scalar advection, chemical reactions and enthalpy changes. All of these effects interact in a physically accurate framework that is simple to code and readily parallelizable. As well as a complete description of the model equations, several example systems will be presented in order to demonstrate the accuracy and versatility of the method. New simulations, which analyzed the effect of a reversible reaction on the transport properties of a convecting fluid, will also be described in detail. This extra chemical degree of freedom was utilized by the system to augment its net heat flux. The numerical method outlined in this paper can be readily deployed for a vast range of complex flow problems, spanning a variety of scientific disciplines.