Computer Simulations of Homogeneous Deposition of Liquid Droplets

Abstract

Understanding the deposition of liquid droplets on surfaces is essential in many environmental and industrial processes. In this paper, we describe computer simulations of homogeneous deposition of liquid droplets on an ideal, smooth, and horizontal solid surface. The statistical evolution of droplet deposition and growth processes are investigated. It is found that three basic events, namely, deposition, incorporation, and coalescence, produce droplets of different sizes and that the droplet size polydispersity is continuously increasing with time leading to a bimodal distribution. By considering the total number of droplets N tot on the surface versus time, we demonstrate that four growth regimes must be considered. These regimes reflect the relative influence of the three events during the deposition process. Variation with time of the surface coverage Γ as a function of the contact angle θ between the droplets and the surface is also investigated. The effect of a variable contact angle on the value of surface saturation and dynamical growth is calculated. Finally, by considering the total mass of the deposited material and surface coverage, some guidelines to achieve an efficient droplet deposition process and surface coverage versus total droplet mass are proposed.

Highly hydrogen-sensitive SnO2 nanoscale-particle films with platinum electrodes

“…The dependence of particle size on film thickness and the formation of the small particles between large particles have also been confirmed using computer simulations [62].…”

Impact of microphysics on the growth of one-dimensional breath figures

“…In this phase, bimodal droplet size distributions emerge in experiments [14,[18][19][20][21], as well as in simulations [21][22][23]. The size distributions feature a monodisperse bell-shaped peak for the largest droplets, and a power-law distribution for the smaller droplets, characterized by a non-trivial polydispersity exponent.…”

A numerical study on growth mechanism of dropwise condensation

“…However, Beysens and Knobler did not give the information about the number of initial droplets in their experiments. Ulrich et al [22] pointed out that the behavior of the growth is strongly dependent on the number of deposition sites on the substrate. It is easy to understand the dependence of the growth exponent of mean radius on the density of initial droplets.…”