Modeling the dynamics of amphiphilic fluids

We show how a lattice-Boltzmann approach can be extended to ternary fluid mixtures with the aim of modeling the diverse behavior of oil-water-surfactant systems. We model the mixture using a Ginzburg-Landau free energy with two scalar order parameters which allows us to define a lattice-Boltzmann scheme in the spirit of the Cahn-Hilliard approach to nonequilibrium dynamics. Results are presented for the spontaneous emulsification of an oil-water droplet and for spinodal decomposition in the presence of a surfactant.