Simulation of the Spreading and Penetration of Droplets into a Paper Coating Layer using the Volume of Fluid Method with OpenFOAM

Abstract

The Volume of Fluid method was employed to examine the spreading and penetration of liquid droplets into paper coating in the context of inkjet printing. The influence of the liquid's equilibrium contact angle, and the type of liquid (water-like or ink-like) on the spreading and penetration of liquid droplets was studied by simulating the fluid flow on the pore-scale using the OpenFOAM software. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was performed on different parameters of the OpenFOAM software. An increased equilibrium contact angle was found to decrease spreading and penetration of droplets, and thus improve print quality. Furthermore, ink-like fluid properties were found to result in similar extents and penetrated volumes as water-like fluid properties, but the process occurred on a longer timescale, which would give the droplet more time to evaporate.