Droplet-on-demand liquid metal jetting is emerging as a powerful technology for the additive manufacturing of metallic parts. The success of this method hinges on overcoming several technological challenges. The principal one among these challenges is the controlled repeatable ejection of single uniform droplets. Due to the high density and surface tension of liquid metals, the droplet ejection process occurs near the minimal extremes of the printability phase diagram, defined by acceptable ranges for the Weber (We) and Ohnesorge (Oh) numbers. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the satellite-free ejection of pneumatically actuated molten tin droplets in this extreme corner of printability and use a combination of high-speed video analysis and volume-of-fluid modeling to elucidate the droplet dynamics. While the simulations at low Oh and We can correctly describe several aspects of the breakup process, such as an increasing tail and pinch-point near the nozzle, no single parameter set can completely capture the droplet shape at breakup. Instead, the experimental droplet dynamics appear to include features from both high and low Oh breakup. This disagreement is ascribed to the incomplete description of the droplet ejection process including wetting and exit effects near the nozzle opening and surface effects such as transient cooling and oxide formation.
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A combined numerical and experimental study to elucidate primary breakup dynamics in liquid metal droplet-on-demand printing
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November 2020
Research Article|
November 25 2020
A combined numerical and experimental study to elucidate primary breakup dynamics in liquid metal droplet-on-demand printing
Victor A. Beck
;
Victor A. Beck
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA
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Nicholas N. Watkins
;
Nicholas N. Watkins
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA
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Ava S. Ashby;
Ava S. Ashby
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA
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Aiden A. Martin
;
Aiden A. Martin
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA
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Phillip H. Paul;
Phillip H. Paul
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA
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Jason R. Jeffries
;
Jason R. Jeffries
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA
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Andrew J. Pascall
Andrew J. Pascall
a)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
Physics of Fluids 32, 112020 (2020)
Article history
Received:
September 15 2020
Accepted:
November 02 2020
Citation
Victor A. Beck, Nicholas N. Watkins, Ava S. Ashby, Aiden A. Martin, Phillip H. Paul, Jason R. Jeffries, Andrew J. Pascall; A combined numerical and experimental study to elucidate primary breakup dynamics in liquid metal droplet-on-demand printing. Physics of Fluids 1 November 2020; 32 (11): 112020. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0029438
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