Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar

Seminar Details

Speaker:
Juan Mairal
Affiliation:
University of Zaragoza
Title:
A cross-validation study of computational methods for droplet spreading
Time:
3PM Monday, 6 December 2021
Location:
Science Centre North, Room 1.25

The impact of a droplet on a smooth surface is a problem that can be solved using different models, each of them having their own idiosyncrasies and particularities. These differences appear mainly on the treatment of the contact-line, the place where the droplet's perimeter meets the substrate. This work seeks to validate the Volume of Fluid method included in the popular CFD library OpenFOAM by comparing it with the Diffuse Interface Method (DIM), which has undergone successful testing before and which is more "closed" in the sense that it does not need many parameters to be chosen. The validation is done in 2D and shows that behavior of the droplet is very similar in the initial spreading phase, and it diverges in later stages of the impact. Convergence tests show that coarser meshes can be used in DIM but more resolution is needed in Volume of Fluid due to the unpredictability of the entrapped bubble dynamics. At the end, by comparing the methods, a set of parameters can be chosen in Volume of Fluid, looking towards using them in future 3D simulations. This is joint work with Lennon Ó Náraigh in the School of Mathematics and Statistics in UCD.

Return to 2021/22 seminar list