Droplet behaviors on inclined surfaces with dynamic contact angle

Dynamic contact angle (DCA) is of crucial importance in the numerical investigation of water management problems in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In order to well predict the gas-liquid two-phase flow in the complex flow field in PEMFCs, first, it is very critical to build a robust DCA model that is capable of simulating droplet behaviors on a single surface under various conditions. In our previous research work, an advancing-receding DCA (AR-DCA) model is developed and has been successfully validated against a series of experiments from the available literature for droplet impact on surfaces. In this study, the AR-DCA model is further applied to simulate droplet behaviors on inclined surfaces with different droplet impact velocities, impact angles and viscosities. It is found that the droplet spreading and deformation from the simulations have excellent agreement with those captured in the corresponding experiments. The results also indicate that higher impact velocity and impact angle can facilitate the spreading trend at the droplet trailing edge and have no notable effects on the leading edge. In addition, the increase of droplet viscosity leads to a transition from droplet deposition phenomenon to partial rebound on the surface. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.