A coupled quadrilateral grid level set projection method applied to ink jet simulation

Abstract

A coupled level set-projection method on quadrilateral grids is developed for piezoelectric ink jet simulations. The model is based on the Navier–Stokes equations for incompressible two-phase flows in the presence of surface tension and density jump across the interface separating ink and air, coupled to an electric circuit model which describes the driving mechanism behind the process, and a macroscopic contact model which describes the air–ink–wall dynamics. We simulate the axisymmetric flow on quadrilateral grids using a combination of second-order finite difference projection methods to solve the fluid equations and level set methods to track the air/ink interface. To improve the mass conservation performance of the coupled level set method, a bicubic interpolation is combined with the Fast Marching Method for level set re-initialization on quadrilateral grids. The numerical method is used to analyze the motion of the interface, droplet pinch off, formation of satellites, effect of nozzle geometry on droplet size and motion, and the dynamics for droplet landing. The simulations are faithful to the dimensions and physics of a particular class of inkjet devices.