THE EFFECT OF THE SURFACE INCLINATION ON THE HYDRODYNAMICS AND THERMODYNAMICS OF LEIDENFROST DROPLETS

In this research, the effect of the surface inclination on the hydrodynamics and heat transfer of droplets impinging on very hot surfaces is studied. The applied numerical algorithm is based on the accurate calculation of the vaporization rate in the simulation process using a combination of the level set and ghost fluid methods. Also a mesh clustering technique is utilized to create sufficient mesh resolution near the surface in order to take into account the effect of the thin vapor layer between droplet and very hot surface. The results are verified against available experiments. The effect of the surface inclination on the droplet maximum spreading radius, droplet contact time and total heat removal from the surface is considered. Results show that for the studied regime, the maximum spreading radius of the droplet is decreased with an increase in the surface inclination while the droplet contact time on the surface is independent from the surface inclination. For inclinations greater than 45, the total heat removal is decreased considerably with an increase in the inclination angle. For smaller inclinations, the dependency of the total heat removal on the surface inclination is not strong.