Three dimensional modeling of liquid droplet spreading on solid surface: An enriched finite element/level-set approach

A physically consistent approach is introduced to simulate dynamics of droplets in contact with solid substrates. The numerical method is developed by introducing the molecular–kinetic model within the framework of the level-set/enriched finite element method and including the theoretically resolved sub-elemental hydrodynamics. The level-set method is customized to comply fully with the model acquired for the moving contact-line. The consistency of the proposed method is verified by comparing the simulation results with the theoretical predictions. In order to further validate the method, the spreading of a droplet is numerically modeled and compared rigorously with the experimental data reported in the literature. The proposed method is also employed to capture the evolution of a droplet trapped in a conical pore. All test-cases are simulated on three-dimensional computational domains.