In this paper, we aim to address an important issue about the pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann (LB) model, which has attracted much attention as a mesoscopic model for simulating interfacial dynamics of complex fluids, but suffers from the problem that the surface tension cannot be tuned independently of the density ratio. In the literature, a multirange potential was devised to adjust the surface tension [Sbragaglia et al., Phys. Rev. E 75, 026702 (2007)]. However, it was recently found that the density ratio of the system will be changed when the multirange potential is employed to adjust the surface tension. An alternative approach is therefore proposed in the present work. The basic strategy is to add a source term to the LB equation so as to tune the surface tension of the pseudopotential LB model. The proposed approach can guarantee that the adjustment of the surface tension does not affect the mechanical stability condition of the pseudopotential LB model, and thus provides a separate control of the surface tension and the density ratio. Meanwhile, it still retains the mesoscopic feature and the computational simplicity of the pseudopotential LB model. Numerical simulations are carried out for stationary droplets, capillary waves, and droplet splashing on a thin liquid film. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed approach is capable of achieving a tunable surface tension over a very wide range and can keep the density ratio unchanged when adjusting the surface tension.

In this paper, we develop a three-dimensional multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method (MRT-LBM) based on a set of non-orthogonal basis vectors. Compared with the classical MRT-LBM based on a set of orthogonal basis vectors, the present non-orthogonal MRT-LBM simplifies the transformation between the discrete velocity space and the moment space and exhibits better portability across different lattices. The proposed method is then extended to multiphase flows at large density ratio with tunable surface tension, and its numerical stability and accuracy are well demonstrated by some benchmark cases. Using the proposed method, a practical case of a fuel droplet impacting on a dry surface at high Reynolds and Weber numbers is simulated and the evolution of the spreading film diameter agrees well with the experimental data. Furthermore, another realistic case of a droplet impacting on a super-hydrophobic wall with a cylindrical obstacle is reproduced, which confirms the experimental finding of Liu et al. [“Symmetry breaking in drop bouncing on curved surfaces,” Nat. Commun. 6, 10034 (2015)] that the contact time is minimized when the cylinder radius is comparable with the droplet radius.

In this paper, we give an alternative derivation for the cascaded lattice Boltzmann method (CLBM) within a general multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) framework by introducing a shift matrix. When the shift matrix is a unit matrix, the CLBM degrades into an MRT LBM. Based on this, a consistent forcing scheme is developed for the CLBM. The consistency of the nonslip rule, the second-order convergence rate in space, and the property of isotropy for the consistent forcing scheme is demonstrated through numerical simulations of several canonical problems. Several existing forcing schemes previously used in the CLBM are also examined. The study clarifies the relation between MRT LBM and CLBM under a general framework.