On the dynamic contact angle in simulation of impinging droplets with sharp interface methods

Abstract

Effects of dynamic contact angle models on the flow dynamics of an impinging droplet in sharp interface simulations are presented in this article. In the considered finite element scheme, the free surface is tracked using the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian approach. The contact angle is incorporated into the model by replacing the curvature with the Laplace–Beltrami operator and integration by parts. Further, the Navier-slip with friction boundary condition is used to avoid stress singularities at the contact line. Our study demonstrates that the contact angle models have almost no influence on the flow dynamics of the non-wetting droplets. In computations of the wetting and partially wetting droplets, different contact angle models induce different flow dynamics, especially during recoiling. It is shown that a large value for the slip number has to be used in computations of the wetting and partially wetting droplets in order to reduce the effects of the contact angle models. Among all models, the equilibrium model is simple and easy to implement. Further, the equilibrium model also incorporates the contact angle hysteresis. Thus, the equilibrium contact angle model is preferred in sharp interface numerical schemes.