Axisymmetric lattice Boltzmann model for simulating the freezing process of a sessile water droplet with volume change

Droplet freezing not only is of fundamental interest but also plays an important role in numerous natural and industrial processes. However, it is challenging to numerically simulate the droplet freezing process due to its involving a complex three-phase system with dynamic phase change and heat transfer. Here we propose an axisymmetric lattice Boltzmann (LB) model to simulate the freezing process of a sessile water droplet with consideration of droplet volume expansion. Combined with the multiphase flow LB model and the enthalpy thermal LB model, our proposed approach is applied to simulate the sessile water droplet freezing on both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces at a fixed subcooled temperature. Through comparison with the experimental counterpart, the comparison results show that our axisymmetric LB model can satisfactorily describe such sessile droplet freezing processes. Moreover, we use both LB simulations and analytical models to study the effects of contact angle and volume expansion on the freezing time and the cone shape formed on the top of frozen droplets. The analytical models are obtained based on heat transfer and geometric analyses. Additionally, we show analytically and numerically that the freezing front-to-interface angle keeps nearly constant (smaller than 90 degrees).