Application of volume of fluid method for simulation of a droplet impacting a fiber

Abstract

In the present work, impact of a Newtonian drop on horizontal thin fibers with circular cross section is simulated in 2D views. The numerical simulations of the phenomena are carried out using volume of fluid (VOF) method for tracking the free surface motion. Impacting of a Newtonian droplet on a circular thin fiber (350μm radius) investigated numerically. The main focus of this simulation is to acquire threshold radius and velocity of a drop which is entirely captured by the fiber. The model agrees well with the experiments and demonstrates the threshold radius decreased generally with the increase of impact velocity. In other words, for velocity larger than threshold velocity of capture perhaps only a small portion of fluid is stuck on the solid and the rest of the drop is ejected for impact velocity smaller than critical velocity the drop is totally captured. This threshold velocity has been determined when the impact is centered.

Keywords

• Impact
• Newtonian drop
• Volume of fluid (VOF)
• Numerical simulation
• OpenFoam®