Numerical analysis on air entrapment during droplet impacting on a wetted surface

Abstract

A numerical model is developed using the coupled level set and volume of fluid method including heat transfer and contact resistance to simulate air entrapment during a droplet impacting on a wetted surface. The dynamic characteristics of the phase interface are analysed. The mechanisms of deformation of the phase interface and formation of entrapped air are explored. The effects of impacting velocity and thickness of liquid film on characteristics of entrapped air are studied. The mechanism of heat transfer is also obtained in this article. The obtained results are as follows. The pressure difference between liquid and gas before the droplet impacting is the main factor determining the deformation of phases interface and the formation of air entrapment. The larger the impacting velocity, the larger the pressure inside the compressed air film is. When the droplet contacts the liquid film, the velocities of the droplet and liquid film increase to their maximum values, and at the impacting axis, they are approximately the same, nearly half the impacting velocity. The velocity distributions of phase interface of the droplet and liquid film are nearly the same in the area of impacting center. The impacting velocity has important effects on the dimensionless arc from bottom to breaking point and the dimensionless diameter of the air. The dimensionless arc and dimensionless diameter decrease with increasing impacting velocity. The dimensionless deforming heights of the droplet and liquid film are closely related to Stokes number: the larger the Stokes number, the larger the dimensionless deforming heights are, and they can be expressed as a power function with Stokes number. The initial thickness of liquid film also affects dimensionless deforming heights of the droplet and liquid film and dimensionless diameter of the entrapped air: the larger the dimensionless thickness of the liquid film, the larger the dimensionless deforming heights are, and the dimensionless diameter decreases with increasing dimensionless thickness of the liquid film. At the very initial stage of the impact, the entrapped air is important for surface heat flux distribution. The entrapped air presents contraction, breakup and detachment. The surface heat flux distribution changes closely with evolution of the entrapped air and tends to be uniform. The effect of the entrapped air on the surface heat flux distribution decreases gradually.