This article reports on spreading characteristics of impinging droplets on various solid surfaces at low Weber number for a variety of engineering applications such as inkjet printer and spray cooling. We also studied the effect of hydrophobicity on m...
This article reports on spreading characteristics of impinging droplets on various solid surfaces at low Weber number for a variety of engineering applications such as inkjet printer and spray cooling. We also studied the effect of hydrophobicity on maximum spreading of water droplet after impact. Experiment was extensively conducted for impinging droplet of 3.6μl DI-water on different solid surfaces, i.e., Aluminum (Al 6061), PDMS, Slide glass for Weber number ranging from 5 to 45. The drop impact process was visualized and analyzed by using a high-speed camera and Image-J software. From the results, we observed two different regimes for a droplet spreading behavior, and suggested some useful correlations of maximum spreading diameter as a function of Weber number. Moreover, it was found that as equilibrium contact angle increased, maximum spreading diameter decreased, indicating that spreading behavior was substantially affected by Weber number and surface hydrophobicity.