A free-surface lattice Boltzmann method for modelling the filling of expanding cavities by Bingham fluids.

The filling process of viscoplastic metal alloys and plastics in expanding cavities is modelled using the lattice Boltzmann method in two and three dimensions. These models combine the regularized Bingham model for viscoplastic fluids with a free-interface algorithm. The latter is based on a modified immiscible lattice Boltzmann model in which one species is the fluid and the other one is considered to be a vacuum. The boundary conditions at the curved liquid-vacuum interface are met without any geometrical front reconstruction from a first-order Chapman-Enskog expansion. The numerical results obtained with these models are found in good agreement with available theoretical and numerical analysis.