Droplet–particle collision mechanics with film-boiling evaporation

Abstract

A three-dimensional numerical model is developed to simulate the process of collision between an evaporative droplet and a high-temperature particle. This phenomenon is of direct relevance to many engineering process operations, such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), polyethylene synthesis, and electronic materials coating. In this study, the level-set method and the immersed-boundary method are combined to describe the droplet–particle contact dynamics in a fixed Eulerian grid. The droplet deformation is captured by one level-set function while the solid–fluid boundary condition is imposed on the particle surface through the immersed-boundary method involving another level-set function. A two-dimensional vapour-layer model is developed to simulate the vapour flow dynamics. Equations for the heat transfer characteristics are formulated for each of the solid, liquid and gas phases. The incompressible flow-governing equations are solved using the finite-volume method with the ALE (arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) technique. The simulation results are validated through comparisons with experimental data obtained from the new experimental set-up designed in this study. An important feature of the droplet impacting on a particle with film boiling is that the droplet undergoes a spreading, recoiling and rebounding process, which is reproduced by the numerical simulation based on the model. Details of the collision such as spread factor, contact time and temperature distribution are provided. Simulations are also conducted to examine the effects of the particle size and the collision velocity. Although the value for the maximum spread factor is larger for a higher impact velocity and for a smaller particle, the contact time is independent of the impact velocity and particle size. Both the normal collision and the oblique collision are considered in this study.