On the Successive Impingement of Droplets Onto a Substrate

Abstract

Numerical simulations of successive impingement of water droplets onto a substrate have been performed. The objective is to understand the hydrodynamics of the impingement process, particularly the interaction between successive droplets. The Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a finite-volume formulation. A two-step projection method is used along with a fixed, nonuniform, staggered rectangular grid. The free surface of the liquid is tracked by the volume-of-fluid method with a second-order-accurate piecewise-linear scheme. A continuum surface force model is used to calculate the surface tension force. The numerical results are in general agreement with experimental data.