Impact and boiling characteristics of a droplet on heated surfaces: A 3D lattice Boltzmann study

Droplet impingement and boiling on heated surfaces play an important role in many industrial applications. Due to its complexity in nature, it is challenging to simulate the process of droplet impact on heated surfaces involving phase change. In the present work, a three-dimensional numerical simulation based on lattice Boltz-mann method (LBM) is applied to analyze the dynamic and thermodynamic behaviors of droplet impact on heated surfaces. The process of vapor bubble nucleation, growth, coalescence, and even burst at the interface of the droplet can be successfully captured, and four typical regimes are numerically reproduced, which include film evaporation, nucleate boiling, transition boiling, and film boiling. Due to the idealized smooth surface applied here, a constant contact angle (CCA) model is observed during the process of droplet evaporation, and the time evolution of normalized droplet volume and spreading factor in the evaporation stage are consistent with the sessile droplet evaporation. When the bubble nucleation occurs in the droplet, the droplet interface is seriously distorted, and the heat transfer performance exhibits a strong dependence on vapor bubble dynamics. In addition, according to the numerical results, three different rebound types, including burst rebound, partial rebound, and complete rebound, are observed and analyzed in detail.

Automated summary

In this study, a three-dimensional numerical simulation based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to analyze the dynamic and thermodynamic behaviors of droplet impingement and boiling on heated surfaces. The simulation successfully captures the process of vapor bubble nucleation, growth, coalescence, and even burst at the droplet interface. Four typical regimes including film evaporation, nucleate boiling, transition boiling, and film boiling are numerically reproduced. The study reveals the importance of vapor bubble dynamics in heat transfer performance and identifies three different rebound types.