A Level-Set Method for Analysis of Particle Motion in an Evaporating Microdroplet

A sharp-interface level-set (LS) method is presented for computing particle motion in an evaporating microdroplet. The LS formulation for incompressible two-phase flow is extended to include the effects of evaporation, mass transfer, heat transfer, and dynamic contact angles. A numerical technique for the conservation of particle concentration is incorporated into the LS method, and calculation procedures are also developed and tested for reducing the numerical errors caused in the computation of interface curvature and liquid–gas velocity jump. The improved LS method is applied to the simulation of particle distribution in microdroplet evaporation on a solid surface.