Morphologies and dynamics of micro-droplet impact onto an idealised scratch

TL;DR

This study investigates how micro-droplets impact and behave on scratched surfaces, revealing seven equilibrium shapes influenced by various forces, with implications for inkjet printing quality.

Contribution

It introduces a regime map for droplet morphologies on scratches and adapts spreading laws to predict regime boundaries, validated by numerical simulations.

Findings

Seven equilibrium droplet morphologies identified.

Good agreement between theory and GPU-accelerated simulations.

Influences of Reynolds, Weber numbers, and contact angles explored.

Abstract

As inkjet technology develops to produce smaller droplets, substrate features such as accidental scratches or manufacturing defects can potentially affect the outcome of printing, particularly for printed electronics where continuous tracks are required. Here, the deposition of micro-droplets onto a scratch of commensurate size is studied. The scratch is considered as a groove of rectangular cross-section, with rectangular side ridges representing material displaced from the substrate, and seven equilibrium morphologies are identified as a result of inertial spreading, contact-line pinning, imbibition into the scratch and capillary flow. A regime map is constructed in terms of scratch depth and width, and theoretical estimates of the regime boundaries are developed by adapting droplet spreading laws for flat surfaces to account for liquid entering the scratches. Good agreement is seen with numerical results obtained using a GPU-accelerated three-dimensional multiphase lattice Boltzmann model validated against published experiments, and the influences of Reynolds number, Weber number and advancing and receding contact angles are explored. Negative and positive implications of the results for printing applications are discussed and illustrated via multiple-droplet simulations of printing across and along scratches.