Hydrodynamic pattern transition of droplet train impinging onto heated titanium substrates with or without nanotube coating

Abstract

The impingement of ethanol droplet train on the heated titanium substrates without or with the titanium oxide nanotube coating has been experimentally investigated in close view. The coating makes the substrate with high wettability. Four distinct but steady hydrodynamic patterns are observed on both two surfaces, namely, liquid aggregation and crown periphery instability; sub-droplet splashing and crown periphery instability; splashing and stable crown; and splashing with stable angle. However, the more wetting nanotube coated substrates push the transition between the patterns to a higher temperature. The quantitatively analysis of spreading length, diameter and height of crown and stable splashing angle further proved the transitions between the hydrodynamic patterns on the two titanium surfaces. The instability at the crown periphery may result from the low surface tension of the working fluids in first and second patterns, while the crown becomes stable on the third pattern. In the fourth pattern, a sharp shift of the splashing angle from decreasing to increasing is found at the surface temperature of 323 ∘C and 404 ∘C for the bare titanium surface and the nanotube coated surface, respectively. The shift could be attributed to the emergence of Leidenfrost effect. It is found that the Leidenfrost point at the droplet train impingement on the nanotube coated surface has been remarkably delayed.