Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology, Vol.32, No.19, 2128-2149, 2018
Contact-angle implementation in multiphase smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations
Simulation of surface tension effects using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method requires accurate description of the three phase contact line at the solid-liquid, liquid-gas, and gas-solid interfaces. This paper reports implementation of a virtual fluid method within the numerical framework to simulate contact angles based on the continuum surface force mode. The critical step of this method is to create a virtual liquid-gas interface across the wall surface. The calculated surface tension at the liquid-gas interface near the triple line, which is devoted to reduce the curvature of the crosspoint between the real and virtual interfaces, serves to automatically modulate the dynamic contact line towards the equilibrium contact angle. The proposed method is straightforward and easy to implement without the need to manually alter the normal vectors. The method has been successfully applied to simulate droplet morphologies on smooth and curved surfaces, and predicted morphologies were found to be in good agreement with results obtained from the analytical solutions. The proposed method of analysis holds great potential for use in applications involving bio-inspired superhydrophobic surfaces, microfluidics, and ore floatation, and the like.
Keywords:Smoothed particle hydrodynamics;virtual fluid method;contact angle;droplet morphology;complex-shaped surface