Elimination of gas entrapment in droplet-based 3D printing by induced electric-field

Abstract

Gas entrapment during droplet deposition may induce pinhole defects in droplet-based 3D printing. However, achieving effective suppression of gas entrapment is challenging given that gas entrapment behavior is the physical essence of droplet impact. Inspired by that charged droplets will be deformed in the electric field, a method of suppressing gas entrapment by weakly charging the droplet was proposed. Here, a numerical model is developed to systematically investigate the gas entrapment behaviors during neutral droplet and charged droplet deposition. Results show that the electric field will be induced before the instant of droplet impact on the substrate, which fundamentally changes the gas entrapment behavior. Moreover, the competition mechanism between Maxwell stress and lubrication pressure during droplet deposition is revealed, and the pressure inside and outside the droplet bottom profile is quantified. Compared with the neutral droplet, the additional electric stresses act against the lubrication pressure, which increases sharply before the droplet touches the substrate. When the charge level reaches a critical value, the electric stresses are slightly stronger than the lubrication pressure at the bottom center, and the decrease rate of electric stresses along the horizontal distance r is higher than that of gas film pressure, leading to a central touchdown with residue concentric circle gas rings. Furthermore, the evolution of phase fraction, velocity field, and pressure field during droplet deposition with different charge level is investigated comprehensively. Based on this, the dimensionless scale of critical charge level to fundamentally eliminate gas entrapment is obtained. This work may provide new insights into various applications involving droplet deposition, such as eliminating pinhole defects in droplet-based additive manufacturing.