Droplet Impact Dynamics Research Articles

Splashing behavior of impacting droplets on grooved superhydrophobic surfaces

During water droplet impingement onto a rice-leaf-inspired grooved superhydrophobic surface, the unidirectional textures can reduce the solid–liquid contact time through modifying the droplet impact dynamics. The influence of the groove geometry on the splashing of impacting droplets is still unrevealed. In this study, we experimentally identify the droplet bouncing and splashing regimes on grooved superhydrophobic surfaces of varying parameters. Asymmetric spreading and retracting of droplets are observed on the surfaces, accompanied by obvious liquid jets generated within the grooves. As the impact velocity increases, secondary droplets are ejected from the rim of the liquid jets, which is the onset of droplet splashing on the grooved superhydrophobic surfaces. We find that the critical Weber number for the splash of liquid jets decreases with the groove width but increases with the droplet diameter. Scaling analysis is performed to model the splashing criteria and explain its dependence on groove parameters and droplet properties. This research advances the understanding of droplet splashing dynamics on textured superhydrophobic surfaces, which is promising for some agricultural and industrial applications.

How an Oxide Layer Influences the Impact Dynamics of Galinstan Droplets on a Superhydrophobic Surface.

When exposed to air, gallium-based alloys rapidly form a thin oxide layer with viscoelasticity and high adhesion. Although previous work demonstrated that an oxide layer inhibits liquid metal droplet rebound, there is still a lack of a quantitative study to elaborate how an oxide layer affects the impact dynamics. To address this issue, we experimentally investigate Galinstan droplet impingement on a superhydrophobic CuO nanoblade surface and physically explain the difference in the dynamic characteristics of oxidized and unoxidized droplets. Experimental results show that the effect of an oxide layer becomes prominent during the retraction phase. The high adhesion significantly suppresses retraction and rebound, while the elastic response prevents a droplet from sufficiently stretching and maintains the stability of the morphology. More importantly, we systematically and quantitatively explore the influence of an oxide layer on several critical impact parameters, which contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the impact dynamics of liquid metal droplets. It is indicated that an oxide layer has little effect on the maximum spreading factor and spreading time, whereas it causes a 45% reduction of the restitution coefficient and a 36% increase in contact time. Notably, the scaling laws that describe the critical impact parameters of unoxidized droplets show good agreement with the ones known from ordinary Newtonian fluids.

BPNN and CNN-based AI modeling of spreading and icing pattern of a water droplet impact on a supercooled surface

A water droplet impacting on a supercooled surface normally experiencing spreading and freezing is a complex process involving fluid flow, heat transfer, and phase change. We established two models to, respectively, predict the spreading dynamics of a water droplet impact on a supercooled surface and classify the icing patterns to predict the corresponding surface supercooling degree. Six important factors are used to characterize droplet spreading, including Reynolds number, Weber number, Ohnesorge number, surface supercooling degree, the maximum spreading factor, and the dimensionless maximum spreading time. A Back Propagation Neural Network model, including four inputs and two outputs, is established, containing a hidden layer with 15 neurons to perform the non-linear regression training on the spreading factors of 778 groups of an impact water droplet. The trained model is adopted to predict the spreading factors of 86 groups of a water droplet impact on the supercooled surface. The second model is developed to discern and classify the experimentally captured three different icing patterns. Different clustering methods are performed on 116 icing images, including gray-scale and red-green-blue (RGB) clustering. Then, two convolution neural network models of VGG-19 (Visual Geometry Group-19) and VGG-16 are established to classify, train, and test the icing images by gray-scale and RGB clustering methods. The K = 2 gray-scale clustering and the VGG-19 model exhibits the highest accuracy at 90.57%. The two models developed in this study can, respectively, predict the essential factors characterizing spreading dynamics of an impact droplet on a cold surface and predict surface supercooling degree based on an icing pattern.

Droplet rebound and dripping during impact on small superhydrophobic spheres

While droplet impact processes on hydrophilic and hydrophobic spheres have been widely investigated experimentally and numerically, the impact behaviors of water droplets on small superhydrophobic spheres are studied numerically and theoretically in this research. The numerical model adopts the volume of fluid method (VOF) and is verified by comparing the simulation results with the experimental observations in the literature. The effects of Weber number and sphere-to-droplet diameter ratio on the droplet impact dynamics are discussed. The final outcomes of the impact droplets are classified into rebound and dripping types with the latter appearing at a larger Weber number or a smaller diameter ratio. As the Weber number and diameter ratio increase, droplet deformation during impact is reinforced with the maximum width factor of the rebound droplet becoming greater. The maximum width factor of the dripping droplet is nearly independent of the Weber number but is enlarged by the increasing diameter ratio. Moreover, a larger diameter ratio reduces the contact time of the rebound droplet but raises that of the dripping one. A theoretical model based on energy conservation is established to predict the boundary between the droplet rebound and dripping outcomes and is in good agreement with the simulation results. The diameter ratio limit for droplet dripping at a zero Weber number is also obtained. Our results and analyses provide insight into the interaction mechanism between the impact droplet and small spheres or particles.

Cavity and jet formation after immiscible droplet impact into deep water pool

The impact behavior of a droplet in a liquid pool is of fundamental importance in nature and industrial applications. While there are several reports on using the same fluid type for the droplet and liquid pool, there are a few reports on the use of different liquids. Moreover, the mixing process of the droplet and liquid pool is yet to be fully quantified. Herein, we present an experimental setup to study the effect of droplet solubility in water on the impact characteristics of a deep-water pool. In this study, we used three droplets (water, ethanol, and silicone oil) with different densities, surface tensions, viscosities, and solubilities in water and visualized the impact process using a high-speed camera. The diameter of the droplets ranged from 2.0 to 3.4 mm, and the impact velocities ranged from 1.4 to 3.2 m/s. The depth of the droplet pool was fixed at 30 mm. To better understand the impact characteristics, the obtained images were processed to quantify the created cavity and the subsequent liquid jet formed by the droplet impact. Energy analysis performed during the droplet impact process for the 1000 cSt silicone oil droplet revealed that approximately 70% of the impact energy was converted into cavity energy, and the remaining 30% was converted into flow loss. These experimental results provide physical insight into the immiscibility effect on droplet impact dynamics in a deep pool and pave the way for practical applications.

Nanowall Textured Hydrophobic Surfaces and Liquid Droplet Impact.

Water droplet impact on nanowires/nanowalls’ textured hydrophobic silicon surfaces was examined by assessing the influence of texture on the droplet impact dynamics. Silicon wafer surfaces were treated, resulting in closely packed nanowire/nanowall textures with an average spacing and height of 130 nm and 10.45 μm, respectively. The top surfaces of the nanowires/nanowalls were hydrophobized through the deposition of functionalized silica nanoparticles, resulting in a droplet contact angle of 158° ± 2° with a hysteresis of 4° ± 1°. A high-speed camera was utilized to monitor the impacting droplets on hydrophobized nanowires/nanowalls’ textured surfaces. The nanowires/nanowalls texturing of the surface enhances the pinning of the droplet on the impacted surface and lowers the droplet spreading. The maximum spreading diameter of the impacting droplet on the hydrophobized nanowires/nanowalls surfaces becomes smaller than that of the hydrophobized as-received silicon, hydrophobized graphite, micro-grooved, and nano-springs surfaces. Penetration of the impacted droplet fluid into the nanowall-cell structures increases trapped air pressure in the cells, acting as an air cushion at the interface of the droplet fluid and nanowalls’ top surface. This lowers the droplet pinning and reduces the work of droplet volume deformation while enhancing the droplet rebound height.

Droplet impact dynamics onto a deep liquid pool of wavy free surface

The impact of a droplet on a deep pool of water with a flat-free surface results in a deep cavity followed by the emergence of a thick jet with a secondary drop when the Froude number and Weber number of the impacting droplet are 220 and 252, respectively. The disturbances in the free surface of the liquid pool modify the crater and the jet dynamics under identical drop impact conditions. Here, we present the simulations of the water drop impact on a deep liquid pool having various wavy profiles mimicking the free surface ripples. Long slender jets with the formation of multiple secondary droplets are observed when the droplet impacts the trough of an axisymmetric wavy surface. The influence of wave number on the wavy profile becomes more pronounced at large wave amplitudes. While capillary-inertia instability governs the pinch-off of thick Worthington jets, the pinch-off of these slender jets is found to be mainly inertia driven. However, if the drop impacts the crest of an axisymmetric wave, a short thick jet forms with one or two secondary droplets. Axisymmetric waves with radially outward moving interface, as in ripples, showed the occurrence of complete coalescence when droplet impacted on the crest; but the dynamics remain mostly the same as that of a stationary wave for the droplet impact on a trough. Entrainment of air bubbles after cavity collapse and bent jet occurred for an impact on a sinusoidal planar wave when the impact location was in between the two consecutive extremes.

Contact Time of Droplet Impact on Inclined Ridged Superhydrophobic Surfaces.

Superhydrophobic surfaces decorated with macrostructures have attracted extensive attention due to their excellent performance of reducing the contact time of impacting droplets. In many practical applications, the surface is not perpendicular to the droplet impact direction, but the impacting dynamics in such scenarios still remain mysterious. Here, we experimentally investigate the dynamics of droplet impact on inclined ridged superhydrophobic surfaces and reveal the effect of Wen (the normal Weber number) and α (the inclination angle) on the contact time τ. As Wen increases, τ first decreases rapidly until a platform is reached; if Wen continues to increase, τ further reduces to a lower platform, indicating a three-stage variation of τ in low, middle, and high Wen regions. In the middle and high Wen regions, the contact time is reduced by 30 and 50%, respectively, and is dominated by droplet spreading/retraction in the tangential and lateral directions, respectively. A quantitative analysis demonstrates that τ in the middle and high Wen regions is independent of Wen and α, while the range of middle and high Wen regions is related to α. When α < 30°, increasing α narrows the middle Wen region and enlarges the high Wen region; when α ≥ 30°, the two Wen regions remain unchanged. In addition, droplet sliding is hindered by the friction and is affected by the droplet morphology in the high Wen region. Overall, the synergistic effect of the surface inclination and macrostructures effectively promotes the detachment of impacting droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces, which provides guidance for applications of superhydrophobic surfaces.

Water droplet bouncing on pre-frosted superhydrophobic carbon soot — A step forward in designing passive icephobic surfaces

The devastating repercussions of natural freezing rain phenomena on a variety of industrial facilities might be avoided if the surface-under-attack is designed to be superhydrophobic, thus, repelling the impacting supercooled droplets and remaining free of ice. Regrettably, in climate regions with negative temperatures and highly humid atmosphere, the supersaturated water vapor freezes within the micro- nanocavities of the non-wettable surface and droplet bouncing associated with superhydrophobicity could no longer be preserved. This article explores the possibility of fabricating superhydrophobic carbon soot coatings that would maintain droplet rebound even if their surface is covered with frost. By analyzing the droplet impact dynamics on two groups of frosted soot coatings, differing by morphology, roughness, surface chemistry and porosity, we show for the first time that the liquid meniscus impalement can be cancelled when the soot consists primarily of macropores and oxygen functional groups below 7 at. %. Such a surface configuration ensures minimum energy losses (qualitatively defined) right after the dynamic collision due to the sparsely inceptive ice bridges that normally enhance the heat transfer at the contact interface. The results reported herein could be a useful platform for developing universal icephobic surfaces applicable to harsh environments.

Electrothermally Assisted Surface Charge Density Gradient Printing to Drive Droplet Transport.

Surface 2019, surface charge density (SCD) gradient printing-driven droplet transport, has attracted considerable attention as a novel and effective approach, which adopts the water droplet impacting a nonwetting surface to create a reprintable SCD gradient pathway conveniently and realizes the high-velocity and long-distance transport of droplets. In the present work, we further investigated the effects of electrothermal behavior on SCD gradient printing on hydrophobic surfaces by considering the droplet impact dynamics. After the electrothermal function was activated, the wettability of the hydrophobic surface improved in terms of the spreading factor history and the infiltration depth, which increased the probability of solid/liquid contact electrification to generate a more favorable SCD gradient. Since the hydrophobic surface was negatively charged by droplet impact, polarized droplets rolled forward along the preprinted SCD gradient pathway due to opposite charge attraction. Based on these results, we designed a SCD gradient printer with an electrothermal function for hydrophobic surfaces. Subsequently, the kinematic parameters of rolling droplets on hydrophobic surfaces were observed and quantified to evaluate the improvements resulting from the electrothermal function.

Dynamics of droplet impact on a ring surface

We investigate the dynamics of droplet impacts on a ring-decorated solid surface, which is reported to reduce the integral of contact area over contact time by up to 80%. By using many-body dissipative particle dynamics (MDPD), a particle-based simulation method, we measure the temporal evolution of the shape and the impact force of two specific types of phenomena, overrun and ejection. The numerical model is first validated with experimental data on a plain surface from literature. Then, it is used to extract the impacting force of the ring and substrate separately, showing the ring does not provide the majority of vertical force to redirect the horizontal spreading. The impacting pressure in different concentric rings is also present as a function of time, showing pressure waves traveling from ring to center. The effect of the ring's height and radius on the impacting force is also discussed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first MDPD study on droplets impacting on a solid surface with a validated force analysis.

Temperature-Dependent Droplet Impact Dynamics of a Water Droplet on Hydrophobic and Superhydrophobic Surfaces: An Experimental and Predictive Machine Learning–Based Study

Temperature-Dependent Droplet Impact Dynamics of a Water Droplet on Hydrophobic and Superhydrophobic Surfaces: An Experimental and Predictive Machine Learning–Based Study

Dynamics of Micrometer-Sized Droplet Impact on Vertical Walls with Different Surface Roughness

Dynamics of Micrometer-Sized Droplet Impact on Vertical Walls with Different Surface Roughness

Computational Study of Early-Time Droplet Impact Dynamics on Textured and Lubricant-Infused Surfaces

Computational Study of Early-Time Droplet Impact Dynamics on Textured and Lubricant-Infused Surfaces

Regulating the Entire Journey of Pesticide Application on Surfaces of Hydrophobic Leaves Modified by Pathogens at Different Growth Stages.

Under the background of the strategy of reducing pesticide application and increasing efficiency, the mechanism and common technology of efficient and accurate target deposition of chemical pesticides are the key development direction. The interaction between pesticide droplets and a leaf surface affects the deposition behavior of pesticides. However, cucumber leaf surface modified by powdery mildew pathogens at different growth stages is more hydrophobic than a normal leaf surface, which hinders the accurate deposition of pesticides on cucumber powdery mildew leaves. Here, an effective strategy for controlling pesticide efficiency for the entire journey of pesticide application is proposed. Based on the impact dynamics of droplets, the dynamic direction of droplet bounce is determined, the trajectory of droplet rebound is preliminarily determined, and the pinning sites formed by droplets on the surface of cucumber leaves with powdery mildew are confirmed. By analyzing the dynamics in the retraction stage and the energy dissipation rate for droplets after impact, the basic parameters that can be used to simply characterize droplet rebound are screened out, and the effect of addition of an effective surfactant is determined by characterizing the basic parameters (energy dissipation rate, retraction rate, recovery coefficient). The molecular structure formed by the addition of nonionic surfactant in pesticide solution is more appropriate to the interaction between the powdery mildew layer and the pesticide solution, which ensured that the droplets are well wet and deposited on cucumber powdery mildew leaves. Meanwhile, a force balance model for the pesticide droplet wetting state is established to calculate the pinning force for the droplet and predict the transition direction for the droplet wetting state. Impact dynamics combined with force balance model analysis provides a constructive method to improve pesticide utilization during the entire journey for pesticide application on hydrophobic plant surfaces.

Contact time of impacting droplets on a superhydrophobic surface with tunable curvature and groove orientation

Regulating the impact dynamics of water droplets on a solid surface is of great significance for some practical applications. In this study, the droplet impingement on a flexible superhydrophobic surface arrayed with micro-scale grooves was investigated experimentally. The surface was curved into cylindrical shapes with certain curvatures from two orthogonal directions, where axial and circumferential grooves were formed, respectively. The effects of curvature diameter and Weber number, as well as the orientation of grooves on droplet spreading and retracting dynamics were analyzed and explained. Results show that the circumferential grooves promote the spreading of a droplet in the azimuthal direction, where the droplet rebounds from the surface with a stretched shape. This mechanism further reduces the contact time of impacting droplets on the superhydrophobic surface compared to the other curving mode.

Breaking the symmetry to suppress the Plateau\u2013Rayleigh instability and optimize hydropower utilization

Droplet impact on solid surfaces is essential for natural and industrial processes. Particularly, controlling the instability after droplet impact, and avoiding the satellite drops generation, have aroused great interest for its significance in inkjet printing, pesticide spraying, and hydroelectric power collection. Herein, we found that breaking the symmetry of the droplet impact dynamics using patterned-wettability surfaces can suppress the Plateau–Rayleigh instability during the droplet rebounding and improve the energy collection efficiency. Systematic experimental investigation, together with mechanical modeling and numerical simulation, revealed that the asymmetric wettability patterns can regulate the internal liquid flow and reduce the vertical velocity gradient inside the droplet, thus suppressing the instability during droplet rebounding and eliminating the satellite drops. Accordingly, the droplet energy utilization was promoted, as demonstrated by the improved hydroelectric power generation efficiency by 36.5%. These findings deepen the understanding of the wettability-induced asymmetrical droplet dynamics during the liquid–solid interactions, and facilitate related applications such as hydroelectric power generation and materials transportation.

Droplet splashing during the impact on liquid pools of shear-thinning fluids with yield stress

The impact of droplets on liquid pools is ubiquitous in nature and many industrial applications. Most previous studies of droplet impact focus on Newtonian fluids, while less attention has been paid to the impact dynamics of non-Newtonian droplets, even though non-Newtonian fluids are widely used in many applications. In this study, the splashing dynamics of shear-thinning droplets with yield stress are studied by combined experiments and simulations. The formation and the propagation of the ejecta sheet produced during the splashing process are considered, and the velocity, the radius, and the time of the ejecta sheet emergence are analyzed. The results show that the non-Newtonian fluid properties significantly affect the splashing process. The ejecta sheet of the splashing becomes easier to form as the flow index reduces, the large yield stress can affect the thickness of the ejecta sheet, and the spreading radius collapses into a geometrical radius due to that the inertia force is the dominant factor in the ejecta sheet propagation.

Evaluating a transparent coating on a face shield for repelling airborne respiratory droplets.

A face shield is an important personal protective equipment to avoid the airborne transmission of COVID-19. We assess a transparent coating on a face shield that repels airborne respiratory droplets to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The surface of the available face shield is hydrophilic and exhibits high contact angle hysteresis. The impacting droplets stick on it, resulting in an enhanced risk of fomite transmission of the disease. Further, it may get wetted in the rain, and moisture may condense on it in the presence of large humidity, which may blur the user's vision. Therefore, the present study aims to improve the effectiveness of a face shield. Our measurements demonstrate that the face shield, coated by silica nanoparticles solution, becomes superhydrophobic and results in a nominal hysteresis to the underlying surface. We employ high-speed visualization to record the impact dynamics of microliter droplets with a varying impact velocity and angle of attack on coated and non-coated surfaces. While the droplet on non-coated surface sticks to it, in the coated surface the droplets bounce off and roll down the surface, for a wide range of Weber number. We develop an analytical model and present a regime map of the bouncing and non-bouncing events, parametrized with respect to the wettability, hysteresis of the surface, and the Weber number. The present measurements provide the fundamental insights of the bouncing droplet impact dynamics and show that the coated face shield is potentially more effective in suppressing the airborne and fomite transmission.

Impacting-bouncing nanodroplets on superhydrophobic surfaces under electric fields

Because electric fields can significantly modify the morphology of impacting droplets, the impact dynamics of droplets subjected to external electric fields have attracted extensive attention in recent years. Owing to the enhanced viscous effect and the altered viscous dissipation mechanisms, nanodroplets show distinctly different impact behaviors from macroscale droplets. However, it is not clear how electric fields affect the impact dynamics of nanodroplets, especially when the field direction is changed. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to reveal the bouncing dynamics of a nanodroplet impacting a hydrophobic surface under electric fields with various field strengths and directions. As compared with the case without an electric field, the bouncing dynamics of the nanodroplet were significantly modified in the presence of the electric fields with tilt angles of α = 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90°, especially when the field strength was higher than 0.08 V Å −1 . The restitution coefficient, ε b , was enhanced by the electric fields at a non-zero α with strengths larger than 0.08 V Å −1 . Applying an electric field with α = 60° and ≥ 0.08 V Å −1 would lead to the maximum bouncing velocity. The contact time was stretched by a perpendicular electric field when E ≥ 0.08 V Å −1 . When the impact velocity was not sufficient to make a droplet bounce off, an electric field with all directions was capable to cause the opposite. • Bouncing dynamics of nanodroplets subjected to an electric field are studied. • Applying an electric field promotes bouncing. • The electric field with a tilt angle of 60° yields the best bouncing. • A vertical electric field increases the contact time.