Deformation Process of a Water Droplet Impinging on a Solid Surface

Abstract

This paper is concerned with numerical simulations of the deformation behavior of a liquid droplet impinging on a flat solid surface, as well as the flow field inside the droplet. In the present situation, the case where a droplet impinges on the surface at room temperature with a speed in the order of a few [m/s], is treated. These simulations were performed using the MAC-type solution method to solve a finite-differencing approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations governing an axisymmetric and incompressible fluid flow. For the first case where the liquid is water, the liquid film formed by the droplet impinging on the solid surface flows radially along it and expands in a fairly thin discoid-like shape. Thereafter, the liquid flow shows a tendency to stagnate at the periphery of the circular film, with the result that water is concentrated there is a doughnut-like shape. Subsequently, the water begins to flow backwards toward the center where it accumulates in the central region. For the second case where a n-heptane droplet impinges the surface, the film continues to spread monotonically up to a maximum diameter and there is no recoiling process to cause a backwards flow towards the central region. In this study the whole deformation process was investigated from numerical as well as experimental points of view. We find that the results obtained by the present mathematical model give fairly good agreement with the experimental observations. The effects of the viscous stresses and the surface tension on the deformation process of the droplets are estimated and discussed from a practical standpoint.