A numerical investigation on the influence of liquid properties and interfacial heat transfer during microdroplet deposition onto a glass substrate

TL;DR

This study uses finite-element simulations to analyze how different liquid properties and heat transfer affect microdroplet impact and spreading on glass, with implications for manufacturing and cooling applications.

Contribution

It introduces a combined numerical and experimental approach to study interfacial heat transfer during microdroplet impact, focusing on multiple liquids and non-isothermal conditions.

Findings

Good agreement between simulations and experiments for water and isopropanol.

Spreading behavior varies significantly with liquid type and thermal conditions.

Interfacial Biot number influences phase change initiation and heat transfer.

Abstract

This work investigates the impingement of a liquid microdroplet onto a glass substrate at different temperatures. A finite-element model is applied to simulate the transient fluid dynamics and heat transfer during the process. Results for impingement under both isothermal and non-isothermal conditions are presented for four liquids: isopropanol, water, dielectric fluid (FC-72) and eutectic tin-lead solder (63Sn-37Pb). The objective of the work is to select liquids for a combined numerical and experimental study involving a high resolution, laser-based interfacial temperature measurement to measure interfacial heat transfer during microdroplet deposition. Applications include spray cooling, micro-manufacturing and coating processes, and electronics packaging. The initial droplet diameter and impact velocity are 80 {\mu}m and 5 m/s, respectively. For isothermal impact, our simulations with water and isopropanol show very good agreement with experiments. The magnitude and rates of spreading for all four liquids are shown and compared. For non-isothermal impacts, the transient drop and substrate temperatures are expressed in a non-dimensional way. The influence of imperfect thermal contact at the interface between the drop and the substrate is assessed for a realistic range of interfacial Biot numbers. We discuss the coupled influence of interfacial Biot numbers and hydrodynamics on the initiation of phase change.