Numerical simulation of binary liquid droplet collision

A numerical investigation of binary droplet collision has been conducted. The complete process of the collision of two liquid droplets is dynamically simulated by solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the convective equation of the level set function that captures the interface between the liquid and the gas phases. The simulations cover four major regimes of binary collision: bouncing, coalescence, reflexive separation, and stretching separation. For water droplets in air, the numerical results are compared with the experiments by and Ashgriz and Poo [J. Fluid Mech. 221, 183 (1990)] on collision consequences. For hydrocarbon (C14H30) droplets in nitrogen gas, the simulated results are compared in detail with the time-resolved photographic images of the collision processes obtained by Qian and Law [J. Fluid Mech. 331, 59 (1997)] in every collision regime. The present numerical results suggest that the mechanism of a bouncing collision is governed by the macroscopic dynamics. Howe...

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