Modelling the Formation of Clusters of Drops by Means of the Flocculation and Coalescence Phenomena with Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

Abstract

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a Lagrangian mesh-free formalism and has been useful to model continuous fluid. This formalism is employed to resolve the Navier- Stokes equations by replacing the fluid with a set of particles. These particles are interpolation points from which properties of the fluid can be determined. In this study, the SPH method is applied to simulate the hydrodynamics interaction of many drops, showing some settings for the coalescence, fragmentation and flocculation problem of equally sized liquid drops in three-dimensional spaces. Ranges of value for the collision velocity droplets are chosen, giving rise some different results for the collision of clusters of liquid drops. The velocity vector field formed inside the drops during the collision process is shown.