Analysis of high-speed drop impact onto deep liquid pool

Abstract

The present work is devoted to the analysis of drop impact on a deep liquid pool, focusing on the high-energy splashing regimes caused by large raindrops at high velocities. Such cases are characterized by short time scales and complex mechanisms, thus they have received very little attention until now. The BASILISK open-source solver is used to perform three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. The capabilities of octree adaptive mesh refinement techniques enable capturing of the small-scale features of the flow, while the volume of fluid approach combined with a balanced-force surface-tension calculation is applied to advect the volume fraction of the liquids and reconstruct the interfaces. The numerical results compare well with experimental visualizations: both the evolution of crown and cavity, the emanation of ligaments, the formation of bubble canopy and the growth of a downward-moving spiral jet that pierces through the cavity bottom, are correctly reproduced. Reliable quantitative agreements are also obtained regarding the time evolution of rim positions, cavity dimensions and droplet distributions through an observation window. Furthermore, simulation gives access to various aspects of the internal flows, which allows us to better explain the observed physical phenomena. Details of the early-time dynamics of bubble ring entrapment and splashing performance, the formation/collapse of bubble canopy and the spreading of drop liquid are discussed. The statistics of droplet size show the bimodal distribution in time, corroborating distinct primary mechanisms of droplet production at different stages.