Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Mousavi, Mahmood, Tayerani, Parisa, Stephens, Sebastian, Ruskowski, Cadence, Lee, Bok Jik
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.07854
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866911578237960192
author Mousavi, Mahmood
Tayerani, Parisa
Stephens, Sebastian
Ruskowski, Cadence
Lee, Bok Jik
author_facet Mousavi, Mahmood
Tayerani, Parisa
Stephens, Sebastian
Ruskowski, Cadence
Lee, Bok Jik
contents The impact dynamics of viscoelastic droplets on solid surfaces play a critical role in numerous applications, including inkjet printing, spray coating, and microfluidics, where precise control of spreading, retraction, and rebound is essential. This numerical study investigates the coupled influence of fluid viscoelasticity, modeled via the Oldroyd-B constitutive equation, and gravitational-capillary balance on droplet behavior upon impact onto surfaces featuring sharp hybrid wettability. Employing a high-fidelity three-dimensional OpenFOAM-based solver that integrates the volume-of-fluid method, log-conformation formulation for improved numerical stability, and a velocity-dependent dynamic contact angle model, we simulated a 2 cm-diameter droplet impacting at 4 m/s across a range of relaxation times and surface tensions. Results demonstrate that increasing the relaxation time from 0.02 s to 0.12 s enhances elastic energy storage, leading to up to 12.9% larger maximum spreading diameters (from 24.97 mm to 28.09-28.17 mm) and a 16.6% reduction in minimum droplet height across uniform and hybrid surfaces. In contrast, increasing surface tension from 0.05 N/m to 0.15 N/m suppresses maximum spreading by about 1.1% (from 27.21 mm to 26.90 mm) while increasing minimum height by 3.3% (from 2.12 mm to 2.20 mm). On hybrid surfaces with static contact angles of 0° and 160°, the sharp wettability contrast induces pronounced asymmetric spreading and directional fluid migration toward the hydrophilic region, ultimately producing distinctive dustpan- and shoe-like equilibrium morphologies. Variations in surface tension, which simultaneously modulate the Weber and Eötvös numbers, reveal that stronger capillary forces suppress radial expansion while enhancing curvature-driven recoil and redistributing viscoelastic stresses.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_07854
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Viscoelastic Droplet Impact on Surfaces with Sharp Wettability Contrast: Coupled Influence of Relaxation Time and Surface Tension
Mousavi, Mahmood
Tayerani, Parisa
Stephens, Sebastian
Ruskowski, Cadence
Lee, Bok Jik
Fluid Dynamics
The impact dynamics of viscoelastic droplets on solid surfaces play a critical role in numerous applications, including inkjet printing, spray coating, and microfluidics, where precise control of spreading, retraction, and rebound is essential. This numerical study investigates the coupled influence of fluid viscoelasticity, modeled via the Oldroyd-B constitutive equation, and gravitational-capillary balance on droplet behavior upon impact onto surfaces featuring sharp hybrid wettability. Employing a high-fidelity three-dimensional OpenFOAM-based solver that integrates the volume-of-fluid method, log-conformation formulation for improved numerical stability, and a velocity-dependent dynamic contact angle model, we simulated a 2 cm-diameter droplet impacting at 4 m/s across a range of relaxation times and surface tensions. Results demonstrate that increasing the relaxation time from 0.02 s to 0.12 s enhances elastic energy storage, leading to up to 12.9% larger maximum spreading diameters (from 24.97 mm to 28.09-28.17 mm) and a 16.6% reduction in minimum droplet height across uniform and hybrid surfaces. In contrast, increasing surface tension from 0.05 N/m to 0.15 N/m suppresses maximum spreading by about 1.1% (from 27.21 mm to 26.90 mm) while increasing minimum height by 3.3% (from 2.12 mm to 2.20 mm). On hybrid surfaces with static contact angles of 0° and 160°, the sharp wettability contrast induces pronounced asymmetric spreading and directional fluid migration toward the hydrophilic region, ultimately producing distinctive dustpan- and shoe-like equilibrium morphologies. Variations in surface tension, which simultaneously modulate the Weber and Eötvös numbers, reveal that stronger capillary forces suppress radial expansion while enhancing curvature-driven recoil and redistributing viscoelastic stresses.
title Viscoelastic Droplet Impact on Surfaces with Sharp Wettability Contrast: Coupled Influence of Relaxation Time and Surface Tension
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.07854