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Efficient and accurate time adaptive multigrid simulations of droplet spreading
Author(s) -
Gaskell P. H.,
Jimack P. K.,
Sellier M.,
Thompson H. M.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in fluids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1097-0363
pISSN - 0271-2091
DOI - 10.1002/fld.632
Subject(s) - multigrid method , wetting , range (aeronautics) , lubrication , mechanics , set (abstract data type) , computer science , algorithm , mathematics , materials science , physics , mathematical analysis , partial differential equation , thermodynamics , composite material , programming language
An efficient full approximation storage (FAS) Multigrid algorithm is used to solve a range of droplet spreading flows modelled as a coupled set of non‐linear lubrication equations. The algorithm is fully implicit and has embedded within it an adaptive time‐stepping scheme that enables the same to be optimized in a controlled manner subject to a specific error tolerance. The method is first validated against a range of analytical and existing numerical predictions commensurate with droplet spreading and then used to simulate a series of new, three‐dimensional flows consisting of droplet motion on substrates containing topographic and wetting heterogeneities. The latter are of particular interest and reveal how droplets can be made to spread preferentially on substrates owing to an interplay between different topographic and surface wetting characteristics. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.