A Sharp-Interface Level-Set Method for Simulation of a Piezoelectric Inkjet Process

A numerical method is presented for computing the droplet motion in a piezoelectric inkjet process. The level-set method for tracking the liquid-gas interface is extended to treat the immersed (or irregular-shaped) solid surface of an ink nozzle. The no-slip condition at the fluid-solid interface as well as the matching conditions at the liquid-gas interface are accurately imposed by incorporating the ghost fluid approach based on a sharp-interface representation. The dynamic contact-angle condition at the immersed solid surface is implemented by employing a fast marching approach. The numerical method is applied to analyze the effects of nozzle shape, dynamic contact angle, and pressure pulse on the inkjet process.