Numerical simulations of drop impact and spreading on horizontal and inclined surfaces

Abstract

The phenomenon of drop spreading is important to several process engineering applications. In the present work, numerical simulations of the dynamics of drop impact and spreading on horizontal and inclined surfaces were carried out using the volume of fluid (VOF) method. For the horizontal surfaces, the dynamics of impact and spreading of glycerin drops on wax and glass surfaces was investigated for which the experimental measurements were available [Šikalo, Š., Tropea, C., Ganic, E.N., 2005a. Dynamic wetting angle of a spreading droplet. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 29, 795–802; Šikalo, Š., Tropea, C., Ganic, E.N., 2005b. Impact of droplets onto inclined surfaces. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 286, 661–669]. The influence of surface wetting characteristics was investigated by using static contact angle (SCA) and dynamic contact angle (DCA) models. The dynamics of drop impact and spreading on inclined surfaces and the different regimes of drop impact and spreading process were also investigated. In particular, the effects of surface inclination, surface wetting characteristics, liquid properties and impact velocity on the dynamics of drop impact and spreading were investigated numerically and the results were verified experimentally. It was found that the SCA model can predict the drop impact and spreading behavior in quantitative agreement with the experiments for less wettable surfaces ( SCA > 90 ∘ ) . However, for more wettable surfaces ( SCA < 90 ∘ ) , the DCA observed at initial contact times were order of magnitude higher than SCA values and therefore the DCA model is needed for the accurate prediction of the spreading behavior.