Numerical simulation of the impact and deposition of charged particulate droplets

This work addresses the impact and deposition of charged “cluster-droplets”, comprised of particulates, on electrified surfaces. A direct numerical method is developed, based on an implicit, staggered, time-stepping scheme which separates the impulsive and continuous forces between particles, in conjunction with an iterative solution method that automatically adapts the time-step sizes to control the rates of convergence within a time-step. This approach is used to investigate the post-impact structure of charged particulate cluster-droplets. Particulate cluster-droplet impact has wide-ranging application to areas such as inkjet printing, sprays, coatings, etc. A series of numerical examples are provided, where we investigate the effect of progressively increasing the electric field strength on the impacted substrate, leading to a more coherent cluster deposition. An analysis is also provided for the interaction of charged cluster-droplets with electromagnetic fields.