Modelling and simulation of drop spreading on fibrous porous media

Abstract

Various operations in petroleum processing, textile technology, printing and composite processing involve wetting and spreading phenomena of liquids in porous media. These phenomena are being investigated using various tools, prominent among them being the spreading of a liquid drop on a porous medium. The spreading is governed by the inertial, gravitational, viscous and capillary forces and their relative importance have been studied to understand the underlying phenomena. In this work, drop spreading on heterogeneous porous media, such as composite reinforcing fabrics, has been investigated. The liquid drop spreading has been modelled in two stages: the flow of liquid on the surface of fabric and the imbibition of the liquid into the fabric due to inter-tow and intra-tow flow of the fluid. The model equations are formulated by making a hypothetical equivalent model of the fabric. The resulting equations are solved numerically. The model is used to simulate the spreading of liquid drops on glass fabrics. The drop spreading is characterized by height, contact radius and contact angle. The front of the liquid within the porous media can also be monitored through the model. Initially, a parametric study on the effect of fabric and tow porosities, the tow radius and the droplet volume on the imbibition time is presented. Finally, the model results are compared with the experimental results from literature. It is shown that the model can capture the essential features and provide insight into drop spreading on heterogeneous porous media.