Numerical investigation of vibration-induced droplet shedding on smooth surfaces with large contact angles

Abstract

In this work, numerical simulations are performed to study the droplet response to the vertical vibration of the substrate, under various frequencies and amplitudes using the multiphase lattice Boltzmann method. First, the numerical results are validated against published experimental data. The effects of droplet size, surface wettability, amplitude, and frequency of the vibrating substrate on droplet detachment are studied. For high contact angles, regardless of the droplet size, when the vibration frequency matches the droplet resonance frequency the droplet is easily removed from the surface. For lower contact angles, the resonance frequency is higher and the detachment amplitude increases significantly. It was also found that viscous forces do not affect the resonance frequency, but have a noticeable impact on the detachment amplitude. The findings of this study can be useful in applications where droplet shedding is crucial, e.g., condensation heat transfer.