Collision between high and low viscosity droplets: Direct Numerical Simulations and experiments

Binary droplet collisions are of importance in a variety of practical applications comprising dispersed two-phase flows. In the present work we focus on the collision of miscible droplets, where one droplet is composed of a high viscous liquid and the other one is of lower viscosity. This kind of collisions take place in, for instance, spray drying processes when droplets with different solid content collide in recirculation zones. The aim of this paper is to investigate the details of the flow inside the colliding droplets. For this purpose, two prototype cases are considered, namely the collision of equal sized droplets and the collision between a small and highly viscous droplet and a bigger low viscous droplet. A new experimental method has been developed in order to visualize the penetration and mixing process of two colliding droplets, where a fluorescence marker is added to one liquid and the droplets are excited by a laser. The results show a delay in the coalescence which takes place during the initial stage of a collision of droplets with different viscosities. Direct Numerical Simulations based on the Volume-of-Fluid method are used to study these collisions and to allow for a more detailed inspection of the mixing process. The method is extended to consider a second liquid with a different viscosity. In order to reproduce the delay of coalescence, an algorithm for the temporal suppression of the coalescence is applied. A predictive simulation of the delay is not possible, because the extremely thin air gap separating the droplets cannot be resolved by the numerics. This approach is validated by comparison with experimental data. The results provide local field data of the flow inside the collision complex, showing in particular a pressure jump at the liquid–liquid interface although no surface tension is present. The detailed analysis of the terms in the momentum balance show that the pressure jump results from the viscosity jump at the liquid–liquid interface.     

Modeling of binary droplet collisions for application to inter-impingement sprays

In this paper, we focused on modeling the collision phenomenon between two liquid droplets for application in spray simulations. It has been known that the existing O’Rourke collision model widely used in CFD codes is inaccurate in determining collision outcomes and droplet behavior. In addition, since the collision probability of the model follows a statistical approach involving computational cell geometry, the prediction results should be strongly dependent on the cell size. As a result, to more accurately calculate droplet collisions, the technique for predicting the droplet velocity and its direction after collision must be extended for use in spray modeling. Further, it is also necessary to consider all the possible collision outcomes, such as bouncing, stretching separation, reflexive separation and coalescence. Therefore, this paper describes the appropriateness of a composite concept for modeling collision outcomes and the implementation of deterministic collision algorithms into a multidimensional CFD code for the calculation of post-collisional droplet movements. Furthermore, the existing model does not consider the formation of satellite droplets. For this reason, our present modeling concept includes a fragmenting droplet collision model. Using the present model, we have validated the collision interactions between liquid droplets under high Weber number conditions by comparing our calculations with experimental results from a binary droplet collision. This paper also deals with the application of the model to inter-impingement sprays by analyzing the atomization characteristics, such as mean droplet size and velocity, spray tip penetrations and spray-shapes of the impinging spray using the suggested collision algorithms and then comparing the results with available experimental data.     

Modeling droplet collision and coalescence in an icing wind tunnel and the influence of these processes on droplet size distribution

A theoretical model of a two-phase air/dispersed water spray flow in an icing wind tunnel is presented here. The mutual interactions taking place within the dispersed phase known as binary droplet collisions, as well as gravitational sedimentation are considered. Where large droplets and low air stream velocities are concerned, the effect of gravity on droplet dynamics is considerable. Gravity causes the vertical deflection of droplet trajectories and an increase in liquid water content (LWC) in the bottom half of the wind tunnel. Droplet collision tends to influence the size, trajectory and velocity of droplets thus affecting the characteristics of the flow and, thereby, the formation of ice on the object placed in the wind tunnel. The present model simulates droplet motion and droplet collision in an icing wind tunnel, where it may be observed that bouncing, stable coalescence, or coalescence followed by separation are the possible outcomes of collision. In the theoretical examination, firstly, the effect of gravity on the vertical deflection of droplet trajectories and on the vertical distribution of the LWC near the icing object are taken into account, while droplet collision is disregarded. Then both factors are considered and collision outcome is determined together with the size and velocity of post-collision droplets. The initial droplet size distribution (DSD), as it occurs at the nozzle outlet, is estimated by a curve in accordance with previous experimental results. The DSD is determined theoretically near the icing object, which makes it possible to calculate the median volume diameter and the LWC of the aerosol cloud. The simulation results with regard to the LWC are compared to the experimental results obtained in this research and a satisfactory qualitative coincidence is to be found between them.     

Experiments on the dynamics of droplet collisions in a vacuum

Highly controlled experiments of binary droplet collisions in a vacuum environment are performed in order to study the collision dynamics devoid of aerodynamic effects that could otherwise obstruct the experimental observations by causing distortion or even disintegration of the coalesced mass. Pre-collision droplets are generated from capillary stream break-up at wavelengths much larger than those generated with the typical Rayleigh droplet formation in order to reduce the interactions among the collision products. Experimental results show that the range of droplet Weber number necessary to describe the boundaries between permanent coalescence and coalescence followed by separation is several orders of magnitude higher than has been reported in experiments conducted at standard atmospheric pressures with lower viscosity liquids (i.e. hydrocarbon fuels and water). Additionally, the time periods of both the oblate and prolate portions of the coalesced droplet oscillation have been measured and it is reported for the first time that the time period for the prolate portion of the oscillation grows exponentially with the Weber number. Finally, new pictorial results are presented for droplet collisions between non-spherical droplets. Received: 30 June 1998/Accepted: 15 October 1999     

气相中双液滴正碰过程数值模拟研究

液滴碰撞现象普遍存在于动力装置燃烧室喷嘴的下游区域,影响燃料的雾化性能。为了揭示相同直径的双液滴中心碰撞机理,求解了轴对称坐标系下的N-S方程,采用VOF(Volume of Fluid)方法捕捉液滴碰撞过程中气液自由表面的演化规律。利用Qian等提供的实验结果对计算模型进行数值校验,验证了模型的准确性。在此基础上,研究了环境压强对液滴碰撞反弹后不同结果(分离和融合)的影响,分析了环境压强和Weber数对液滴碰撞分离的影响。结果表明,液滴在碰撞反弹后的状态(分离或融合)是由液滴间气膜压强与环境气动阻力共同作用的结果,环境压强对液滴碰撞分离过程基本没有影响;Weber数越大,碰撞过程中变形的幅度越大。     

A new predictive model for fragmenting and non-fragmenting binary droplet collisions

A new predictive model for collisional interactions between liquid droplets, which is valid for moderate to high Weber numbers (>40), has been developed and validated. Four possible collision outcomes, viz., bouncing, coalescence, reflexive separation and stretching separation, are considered. Fragmentations in stretching and reflexive separations are modeled by assuming that the interacting droplets form an elongating ligament that either breaks up by capillary wave instability, or retracts to form a single satellite droplet. The outcome of a collision, number of satellites formed from separation processes and the post-collision characteristics such as velocity and drop-size are compared with available experimental data. The comparisons include colliding mono- and poly-disperse streams of droplets of different fuels under atmospheric conditions, and the results agree reasonably well.     

Investigation of droplet collisions for solutions with different solids content

The collision behaviour of droplets and the collision outcome are investigated for high viscous polymer solutions. For that purpose, two droplet chains produced by piezoelectric droplet generators are directed towards each other at a certain angle so that individual droplet pairs collide. For recording the collision event, one double-image and one high-speed CCD camera were used. One camera is positioned perpendicular to the collision plane recording the outcome of the collision, and the second camera is aligned parallel to the collision plane to assure that the droplet chains are exactly in one plane. A new approach for tracking droplets in combination with an extended particle tracking velocimetry algorithm has been developed. Time-resolved series of pictures were used to analyse the dynamics of droplet collisions. The three different water soluble substances were saccharose and 1-Ethenyl-2-pyrrolidone (PVP) with different molecular weights (K17, K30). The solvent was demineralised water. The solids contents ranged from 20 to 60 %, 5 to 25 % and 5 to 35 %, yielding dynamic viscosities in the range of 2–60 mPa s. Results were collected for different pairs of impact angles and Weber numbers in order to establish common collision maps for characterising the outcomes. Here, relative velocities between 0.5 and 4 m/s and impact parameters in the interval from 0 to 1 for equal-sized droplets (Δ = 1) have been investigated. Additionally, satellite formation will be discussed exemplarily for K30. A comparison with common models of different authors (Ashgriz and Poo in J Fluid Mech 221:183–204, 1990; Estrade et al. in Int J Heat Fluid Flow 20:486–491, 1999) mainly derived for low viscous droplets revealed that the upper limit of their validity is given by an Ohnesorge number of Oh = 0.115 and a capillary number of Ca = 0.577. For higher values of these non-dimensional parameters and hence higher dynamic viscosities, these models are unable to predict correctly the boundaries between collision scenarios. The model proposed by Jiang et al. (J Fluid Mech 234:171–190, 1992), which includes viscous dissipation, is able to predict the boundary between coalescence and stretching separation for higher viscosities (i.e. Oh > 0.115 and Ca > 0.577). However, the model constants are not identical for different solution properties. As a conclusion, an alteration of the collision appearance takes place because of the relative importance between surface tension and viscosity.     

Direct numerical simulation of water droplet coalescence in the oil

Coalescence of two water droplets in the oil was simulated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques. The finite volume numerical method was applied to solve the Navier–Stokes equations in conjunction with the Volume of Fluid (VOF) approach for interface tracking. The effects of some parameters consisting of the collision velocity, off-center collision parameter, oil viscosity and water–oil interfacial tension on the coalescence time were investigated. The simulation results were validated against the experimental data available in the literature. The results revealed that quicker coalescence could be achieved if the head-on collisions occur or the droplets approach each other with a high velocity. In addition, low oil viscosities or large water–oil interfacial tensions cause less coalescence time. Moreover, a correlation was developed to predict coalescence efficiency as a function of the mentioned parameters.     

Oldroyd-B黏弹性液滴碰撞过程的数值模拟

复杂的流变特性使凝胶推进剂的雾化过程存在一定困难,这制约了它的发展.聚合物胶凝剂的加入使凝胶推进剂具有黏弹性,从而在雾化时会产生黏弹性液滴,因此为了进一步认识凝胶推进剂的雾化机理、提高凝胶推进剂的雾化性能,对黏弹性液滴的碰撞行为进行数值模拟研究.针对凝胶推进剂雾化过程中出现的液滴撞击现象,考虑流体具有的黏弹性效应,采用...     

Modeling of droplet collisions using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

We present an approach to model collisions of different droplets using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). We consider bouncing and coalescence of two droplets. We only discretize the droplets neglecting the gaseous phase and consider a free surface at the boundaries. We use a modified continuum surface force model for the surface tension at a free surface. The transition between bouncing and coalescence is modeled using a critical Weber number and calculating the loss of kinetic energy during the collision to determine the point of coalescence. We demonstrate numerical convergence and analyze the error of the method for the transition of bouncing and coalescence. We show that the proposed approach is applicable to weakly-compressible SPH and incompressible SPH and compare binary collisions of Newtonian droplets with experimental results from the literature. Finally we apply the model to non-Newtonian droplets that show shear-thinning and shear-thickening behavior and discuss the differences to Newtonian droplets.     

Coalescence of sessile droplets of varying viscosities for line printing

Coalescence of sessile droplets is studied experimentally with water–glycerin mixtures of different viscosities. Effects of viscosity on the dimensionless spreading length (Ψ) and the center-to-center distance (L) are investigated for two droplets; the first droplet (D_s) is stationary on a substrate and the second droplet (D₀) landing at a center-to-center distance L from the first droplet. For a low viscosity fluid, Ψ is maximum when L approaches zero (or λ → 1, where λ = 1 − L/D_s), which represents a head-on collision. For a high viscosity fluid, Ψ is minimum when λ → 0.6. The effect of λ on line printing for various viscosities is also examined by printing multiple droplets. We found that the larger the viscosity, the less the breakup between droplets; viscosities smaller than 60 wt% glycerin yielded line breakup. The overlap ratio of λ > 0.3 produced not a line, but a bigger droplet or puddle because of coalescence. Data obtained in this work can provide insights for the fabrication of conductive microtracks or microinterconnects in printed-electronics applications where a line breakup between droplets would lead to an electrical circuit short.     

DROPLET COLLISION AND COALESCENCE MODEL

A new droplet collision and coalescence model was presented,a quick-sort method for locating collision partners was also devised and based on theoretical and experimental results,further advancement was made to the droplet collision outcome. The advantages of the two implementations of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method were used to limit the collision of droplets to a given number of nearest droplets and define the probability of coalescence,numerical simulations were carried out for model validation.Results show that the model presented is mesh-independent and less time consuming,it can not only maintains the system momentum conservation perfectly,but not susceptible to initial droplet size distribution as well.     

Transition between coalescence and bouncing of droplets on a deep liquid pool

This study focused on the bouncing of sub-millimetric droplets (below 0.7 mm) of three different fluids, distilled water, technical ethanol and 1-propanol on a deep liquid pool of the same fluids. Four different flow regimes including low-energy-collision coalescence, bouncing, high-energy-collision coalescence, and partial coalescence were observed in the experiments. These regimes were plotted in velocity-diameter diagrams, which showed that there was a diameter limit, D ≈ 0.2 mm, above which the low-energy-collision coalescence was inhibited. The contact time, in which the impinging droplets and the liquid surface interacted in the bouncing process, was studied, and the results showed the same characteristic time scale of the contact time as those of Richard et al. (in Nature 417, 2002, 811) and Thoroddsen and Takehara (in Phys. Fluids 12 (6), 2000, 1265–1267). The restitution coefficients for all fluids were investigated, and the water data agreed well with the values reported in the literature (Bach et al., J. Fluid. Mech. 518, 2004, 157–185; Jayaratne and Mason, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 280 (1383), 1964, 545–565). Based on stable restitution coefficients, which varied with fluids, the effects from both viscosity and surface tension were discussed. Further, a correlation (K = We · Oh^−0.58) was generalized to characterize the two transitions between coalescence (both high-energy- and low-energy-collision types) and bouncing, and a comparison with the model and data of Huang and Zhang (in Petrol Sci. 5, 2008, 62–66) showed that the generalized model characterized the coalescence-bouncing threshold well for the experimental fluids in the present study and oil with much higher viscosity.     

Computational analysis of binary collisions of shear-thinning droplets

Scale-reduced models of transport processes and reactive mixing in sprays require improved closure laws, taking into account the characteristic features of elementary spray processes. The present paper investigates binary droplet collisions as such an elementary process. In the case of shear-thinning liquids considered here, this requires a profound understanding of the influence of the non-Newtonian fluid rheology on the flow inside the colliding drops and the collision complex dynamics. We employ direct numerical simulations based on the Volume-of-Fluid method to study these collisions. The results give a quantitative prediction of the resulting droplet collision diameter as well as a qualitative prediction of the complete time evolution. During collisions, extremely thin fluid lamellae appear inside the expanding complex. These have to be accounted for in a physically sound simulation and we apply a stabilization of the lamella to keep it from rupturing. The simulations show that in all considered cases an effective constant viscosity can be found a posteriori which leads to the same collision dynamics. But this effective viscosity is neither the mean nor the minimum viscosity.     

Adaptive collision meshing and satellite droplet formation in spray simulations

Improved numerical methods and physical models have been applied to droplet collision modeling. Numerically, an adaptive collision mesh method is developed to calculate collision rate. This method produces a collision mesh that is independent of the gas phase mesh and adaptively refined according to local parcel number density. An existing model describing the satellite droplet formation during the collision process is improved to reflect the experimental findings that the satellite droplets are much smaller than the parent droplets. The adaptive collision mesh and the improved satellite model have been used to simulate three impinging spray experiments. The model was able to qualitatively predict the occurrence of small satellite drops and bi-modal post-collision drop size distributions. The effect of the collision mesh and the satellite droplet model on a high-speed non-evaporating diesel spray is also assessed.     

Wind tunnel measurements of the preferential concentration of inertial droplets in homogeneous isotropic turbulence

We describe an experimental setup aimed at studying turbulent-induced droplet collisions in a laboratory setting. Our goal is to reproduce conditions relevant to warm-rain formation in clouds. In these conditions, the trajectories of small inertial droplets are strongly influenced by the background air turbulence, and collisions can potentially explain the droplet growth rates and spectrum broadening observed in this type of clouds. Warm-rain formation is currently under strong scrutiny because it is an important source of uncertainty in atmospheric models. A grid at the entrance of a horizontal wind tunnel produces homogeneous isotropic turbulence at a Re _λ in the range of 400–500. Water droplets are injected from the nodes of the turbulence-inducing grid at a volume fraction (?) of 2.7?×?10^?5 and with sizes of 10–200?μm. A complex manifold-injection system was developed to obtain uniform water droplet seeding, in terms of both water content and size distribution. We characterize the resulting droplet-laden turbulent flow, and the statistics of droplet pairs are measured and analyzed. We found that the radial distribution function (RDF), a measure of preferential concentration of droplets that plays a key role in collision kernel models, has a large peak at distances below the Kolmogorov microscale of the turbulence. At very long separations, comparable with the integral length scale of the turbulence, these RDFs show a slow decay to the average probability given by the mean droplet number density. Consistent with this result, conditional analysis shows an increased local concentration of droplets within the inertial length scale (≈ 10–100 Kolmogorov lengths). These results are in good agreement with previous experiments that found clustering of inertial droplets with St?≈ 1 at scales on the order of 10η. Ultimately, our results support the hypothesis that turbulence-induced preferential concentration and enhanced settling can lead to significant increases in the collision probability for inertial droplets in the range 10–50?μm.     

A modified SPH method to model the coalescence of colliding non-Newtonian liquid droplets

This paper develops a modified smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to model the coalescence of colliding non-Newtonian liquid droplets. In the present SPH, a van der Waals (vdW) equation of state is particularly used to represent the gas-to-liquid phase transition similar to that of a real fluid. To remove the unphysical behavior of the particle clustering, also known as tensile instability, an optimized particle shifting technique is implemented in the simulations. To validate the numerical method, the formation of a Newtonian vdW droplet is first tested, and it clearly demonstrates that the tensile instability can be effectively removed. The method is then extended to simulate the head-on binary collision of vdW liquid droplets. Both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid flows are considered. The effect of Reynolds number on the coalescence process of droplets is analyzed. It is observed that the time up to the completion of the first oscillation period does not always increase as the Reynolds number increases. Results for the off-center binary collision of non-Newtonian vdW liquid droplets are lastly presented. All the results enrich the simulations of the droplet dynamics and deepen understandings of flow physics. Also, the present SPH is able to model the coalescence of colliding non-Newtonian liquid droplets without tensile instability.     

Computational study of bouncing and non-bouncing droplets impacting on superhydrophobic surfaces

We numerically investigate bouncing and non-bouncing of droplets during isothermal impact on superhydrophobic surfaces. An in-house, experimentally validated, finite element method-based computational model is employed to simulate the droplet impact dynamics and transient fluid flow within the droplet. The liquid–gas interface is tracked accurately in Lagrangian framework with dynamic wetting boundary condition at three-phase contact line. The interplay of kinetic, surface and gravitational energies is investigated via systematic variation of impact velocity and equilibrium contact angle. The numerical simulations demonstrate that the droplet bounces off the surface if the total droplet energy at the instance of maximum recoiling exceeds the initial surface and gravitational energy, otherwise not. The non-bouncing droplet is characterized by the oscillations on the free surface due to competition between the kinetic and surface energy. The droplet dimensions and shapes obtained at different times by the simulations are compared with the respective measurements available in the literature. Comparisons show good agreement of numerical data with measurements, and the computational model is able to reconstruct the bouncing and non-bouncing of the droplet as seen in the measurements. The simulated internal flow helps to understand the impact dynamics as well as the interplay of the associated energies during the bouncing and non-bouncing. A regime map is proposed to predict the bouncing and non-bouncing on a superhydrophobic surface with an equilibrium contact angle of 155°, using data of 86 simulations and the measurements available in the literature. We discuss the validity of the computational model for the wetting transition from Cassie to Wenzel state on micro- and nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces. We demonstrate that the numerical simulation can serve as an important tool to quantify the internal flow, if the simulated droplet shapes match the respective measurements utilizing high-speed photography.     

Application of a level set method for simulation of droplet collisions

A level set technique for interface tracking is presented, both for the continuum surface force formulation and the ghost fluid method approach. A projection method is used to solve incompressible Navier–Stokes equations that are coupled to a transport equation for the level set function, defined as the algebraic distance to interface. Results are presented for head-on droplet collisions in coalescence and reflexive regimes with a 2D axi-symmetric code, and for an off-center droplet collision in a separation regime for a large impact parameter with 3D code. Simulations provided realistic and various droplet collision behaviors and they correspond to experimental observations.