Numerical contact line behavior prediction for drop-wall impact using Basilisk

Abstract

Drop-wall impact and spray cooling have a wide technical application. There are still fundamental problems associated with wettability and its effect on the drop spreading. Experiments and direct numerical simulations are performed in a wide range of initial drop velocities (0.2–3.6 m/s). The 3D simulation is implemented by solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations along with the volume-of-fluid method in the Basilisk software. An adaptive mesh refinement near the interfacial surface provides a cell size of 5 µ m. The effect of the contact angle calculated using the Hoffman function on the minimum drop height and its maximum spreading is explored. The contact angle affects the dynamics of the contact line. Moreover, the mesh cell size and the initial velocity of a water drop before impact define the development of the drop rim instability when compared with experimental results. Experimental and numerical findings are compared to estimate quantitatively numerical model capabilities.