Dissipative particle dynamics for anti-icing on solid surfaces

Abstract

The problem of surface icing brings great inconvenience to people's daily life and production. It is important to develop effective surface anti-icing technology. The study of droplet freezing mechanism is beneficial to the development of surface anti-icing technology. At the mesoscopic scale, the freezing of droplets on the superhydrophobic surfaces with hierarchical structure involves complex thermodynamic processes such as interfacial heat transfer and phase transition. In these processes, the comprehensive influence of the factors such as droplet wetting state, surface topological structure and environment on the heat transfer and phase change near the solid–liquid-gas three-phase contact line is the key to the ice nucleation inside the droplets and the whole freezing process. In the present paper, the lastest study on anti-icing surfaces and droplet freezing mechanism are introduced in the first. And then the relevant numerical methods in multiphase flow are discussed. Finally, we prospect the particle-based dissipative particle dynamics model’s potential in mimicking the droplet freezing in the future.