A hydrodynamic and thermodynamic simulation of droplet impacts on hot surfaces, Part I: theoretical model

A model is presented to simulate the behaviour of an axisymmetric volatile liquid droplet impacting on a hot solid surface in the film boiling region. A volume of fluid (VOF) algorithm is used to model the gross deformation of the droplet. This algorithm is coupled to a separate one-dimensional algorithm used to model fluid flow within the viscous vapour layer existing between the droplet and solid surface. Heat transfer within the solid, liquid and vapour phases is solved, and a kinetic theory treatment is used to calculate conditions existing at the non-equilibrium interfaces of the vapour layer.