A Study of Surface Wettability Effects on Condensation Droplet Dynamics by Lattice Boltzmann Method

The study of single droplet dynamics plays a critical role in the analysis of condensation heat transfer, because it's the basis for condensation heat transfer theoretical models. There are lots factors that influence droplet dynamics and surface wettability plays an important role among them. But at present, the analysis of single droplet is mainly based on analytical method. In this work, the numerical method lattice Boltzmann method was adopted to study droplet dynamics. The simulation results show that droplet behavior on hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces was different and the active condensation location was also changed at different growth stages. The radius of departure drops obtained by simulation was smaller than theoretical prediction on hydrophilic surface, while it was in good agreement on hydrophobic surface. © 2020, Science Press. All right reserved.