Numerical Simulation of Inkjet Droplet Spreading with the Consideration of the Relationship between Dynamic Contact Angle and Contact Line Velocity

Abstract

Numerical simulation with the consideration of the relationship between dynamic contact angle and contact line velocity is carried out. The imaging quality of ink jet printings is affected by droplet behavior on the media, and a prediction of droplet behavior on the media with a numerical simulation is desired. In these days, the droplet behavior has been studied by many researchers. Consideration of the relationship between dynamic contact angle and contact line velocity as boundary condition is popular for a droplet deposition simulation. However, most of the simulations are carried out with a large (mm order) droplet, which consists of simple materials (water etc.). In this study, we simulate the behaviors of a small (μm order) ink droplet with the consideration of the relationship. The simulation shows a good agreement with the experiments for various kinds of the media.