Computational Modeling of Liquid Droplets Moving on Rough Surfaces

We present a de-coupled approach for computational modeling of liquid droplets moving on rough substrate surfaces. The computational model comprises solving the membrane deformation problem and the fluid flow problem in a segregated manner. The droplet shape is first computed by solving the Young-Laplace equation where contact constraints, due to the droplet-substrate contact, are applied through the penalty method 1]. The resulting configuration constitutes the domain for the fluid flow problem, where the bulk fluid behavior is modeled by the unsteady Stokes' flow model expressed in Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) framework. The entire analysis is performed in the framework of Finite Element Method (FEM). Application of the approach to the case of a droplet moving on a rough surface is presented as an example. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)