Time Resolved Infrared Analysis of Droplet Impacts onto Heated Surfaces Under Extreme Wetting Scenarios

Abstract

[EN] The present paper explores the use of time resolved infrared IR thermography combined with high-speed imaging to describe the liquid-surface interfacial heat transfer phenomena occurring at droplet/wall interactions. Custom made calibration and post-processing methods are proposed and discussed. The results show that the methodology proposed captures very well particular details on droplet dynamics and heat transfer, allowing to identify air bubble trapping at the impact region as well as the temperature variations at the formation of the rim. Furthermore, the calibration proposed here allowed amending some physically incorrect results that were often obtained with the IR camera’s default calibration. The combined analysis of droplet dynamics (e.g. the spreading factor) with the radial temperature profiles, heat flux and cooling effectiveness computation allowed establishing qualitative and quantitative trends on the effect of various parameters on the heat transfer occurring at droplet/wall interactions. Particularly, the effect of the initial surface temperature is observed to play a minor role, as long as it is low enough to prevent the occurrence of boiling. On the other hand, extreme wetting scenarios, such as superhydrophobicity limit the heat transfer between the spreading droplet and the surface. However, the thermal analysis reveals that a major reason for this is not related to the reduced contact time of the droplet on the surface (due to rebound) or air entrapment, but is rather associated to the reduced wetted area caused by the high contact angles.