On high-speed impingement of cylindrical droplets upon solid wall considering cavitation effects

Abstract

The high-speed impingement of droplets on a wall occurs widely in nature and industry. However, there is limited research available on the physical mechanism of the complicated flow phenomena during impact. In this study, a simplified multi-component compressible two-phase fluid model, coupled with the phase-transition procedure, is employed to solve the two-phase hydrodynamics system for high-speed cylindrical droplet impaction on a solid wall. The threshold conditions of the thermodynamic parameters of the fluid are established to numerically model the initiation of phase transition. The inception of cavitation inside the high-speed cylindrical droplets impacting on the solid wall can thus be captured. The morphology and dynamic characteristics of the high-speed droplet impingement process are analysed qualitatively and quantitatively, after the mathematical models and numerical procedures are carefully verified and validated. It was found that a confined curved shock wave is generated when the high-speed cylindrical droplet impacts the wall and this shock wave is reflected by the curved droplet surface. A series of rarefaction waves focus at a position at a distance of one third of the droplet diameter away from the top pole due to the curved surface reflection. This focusing zone is identified as the cavity because the local liquid state satisfies the condition for the inception of cavitation. Moreover, the subsequent evolution of the cavitation zone is demonstrated and the effects of the impact speed, ranging from $50$ to $200~\text{m}~\text{s}^{-1}$ , on the deformation of the cylindrical droplet and the further evolution of the cavitation were studied. The focusing position, where the cavitation core is located, is independent of the initial impaction speed. However, the cavity zone is enlarged and the stronger collapsing wave is induced as the impaction speed increases.