A numerical study of air entrapment during the droplet impact on a solid substrate

A numerical investigation is conducted to study the air entrapment phenomenon when two different liquids such as water and diesel droplet are impacted on the solid surface. The beginning of the air entrapment process was observed during droplet impact on a solid substrate forming a dimple underneath the droplet. The air film thus trapped underneath the droplet started evolving into the air bubble. This journey of evolution mainly comprises phases like an inertial retraction of air film, contraction, and pinch-off of the secondary droplet inside the air bubble for a water droplet impact case. The volume of fluid approach has been utilized to track the progress of air film evolution. The influence of surface wettability has been observed on the evolution of air film into the air bubble by taking four different values of contact angle pertaining to the hydrophilic surface (θ = 10° and 35°) and hydrophobic surface (θ = 90° and θ = 120°). The air bubble was found to get detached from the substrate for the hydrophilic surface (θ = 35°) and observed to remain attached to the substrate for the hydrophobic surface. The variation of pressure underneath the droplet was also investigated as the droplet reaches the substrate. The effect of surface tension has been studied on the evolution of air film by impacting the diesel droplet on the same substrate keeping the same wettability condition (θ = 35°). The lower surface tension of the diesel droplet as compared to the water droplet delayed the process of air film evolution and consequently decreases the retraction speed of air film. Also, the air bubble remains attached to the surface. Furthermore, the air bubble detaches from the surface for an even higher wettability condition (θ = 10°). Thus surface wettability and surface tension become two important factors governing the development of entrapped air film and bubble elimination in many practical applications.