Dispersion of particles in a sessile droplet evaporating on a heated substrate

A coupled volume-of-fluid (VOF) and discrete element model (DEM) is developed and used to study the dispersion of particles in an evaporating pinned sessile droplet on a heated substrate. Fully resolved simulations of evaporating droplets are performed to study the effects of substrate temperature and the Marangoni stresses to study the fluid flow and temperature distribution within the droplet. The fluid flow inside the evaporating droplets is used to predict the behavior of particles, studying the effect of relative particle density and the aforementioned effects on the particle dispersion within the droplet. This study shows that the presence of Marangoni stresses significantly affects the flow and temperature distribution inside the droplet, which, in turn, influences the dispersion of particles in the droplet. The fluid velocity induced by the Marangoni stresses is nearly two orders of magnitude larger than the velocity generated by capillary flow as a result of evaporation, promoting a strong convective mixing within the droplet, while working to equilibrate the temperature distribution at the interface. In the absence of Marangoni stresses, the dispersion of particles is governed by the competing effects of adsorption by the downward-moving interface as a result of evaporation, and particle sedimentation under the influence of gravity. However, both these effects become less dominant in the presence of a flow induced by the Marangoni stresses, causing the particles to initially move toward the apex of the droplet along the interface and, subsequently, toward a stagnation point on the interface.

Uncontrolled Keywords

• Sessile droplet
• Particle dispersion
• Evaporating droplet
• Coffee-ring effect
• VOF–DEM
• Marangoni flow