Capillary Forces Computation on Dynamic Spreading of a Nanosuspension Droplet

Baiou Shi*, Viet Le and Siddharth Ravi
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, Erie, PA 16563, USA
*Corresponding Author: Baiou Shi, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, Erie, PA 16563, USA.

Published: January 23, 2025

DOI: 10.55162/MCET.08.261

View Pdf

Abstract  

This study investigates the mechanism behind the dynamic spreading of liquid nano-droplets with suspended nanoparticles, focusing on the impact of nanoparticle size and interaction strength using molecular dynamics simulations. Building on our prior research with Pb-Cu wetting systems of identical chemistry that revealed distinct spreading behaviors, the current findings demonstrate that particle characteristics and interatomic potentials significantly affect the nanosuspension spreading process. The strength of the interaction between the particle and underlying substrate varies from the interatomic potential to test the dynamic spreading behavior of nanofluid droplets, to explore how it affects the wetting kinetics. Meanwhile, forces acting on suspended particles are directly computed from molecular dynamics simulations and compared with cases of different particle sizes. Mechanisms are discussed by correlating the force data with the contact line advancement, droplet morphology, and the observed pinning/depinning behavior.

Keywords: particle suspension; molecular dynamics; force computation

.