Investigation on the motion of droplets excited by Lamb waves on an inclined non-piezoelectric curved substrate

Abstract

Abstract In this work, the motion of droplets on an inclined non-piezoelectric curved substrate is investigated to study the performance of the Lamb waves (LWs)-driven surface cleaning of the camera lens or other optical components. The droplets do not slide forward on the curved substrate with an inclination less than 5° is verified by experiments. And then, the shape changes of droplets are discussed from experiments and simulation. A two-phase flow simulation model is established using the level set method, which the deformation of gas-liquid interface can be clearly observed when the droplet moves. The observation results that the movement of droplets on the inclined curved glass driven by LW are propelled periodically in a stretching and spreading phases. To investigate the effect of LWs on droplets removal, the movement distance of droplets are measured in four main factors, namely, substrate inclination, input power, droplet volume and surface curvature.