Numerical study on structures formed by the deposition and solidification of a single molten droplet

The formed structure is of importance in determining the surface quality of a component made by droplet-based 3D printing. In the present work, the molten droplet solicitation process was simulated under an axisymmetric system where the smallest length scale and time scale were fully resolved. Evolutions of sharp droplet interfaces were captured through the front tracking method. Parametric studies have been carried out to explore how the dynamic metrics, which include the Ohnesorge number (Oh) and Weber number (We), can affect the structure of depositing droplet. The effect of the superheat parameter on the cooling rate was also investigated in the final section. Numerical results show that the inertial resisting force is critical dynamics in the variation of horizontal dimensionless length at the early deposition process. Three levels of Oh numbers and stages of We numbers were classified according to the deformation behavior. Flattening degree under different Oh number and We number cases were both fitted well by the exponential function. This paper also reveals that the variation law of the cooling rate and solidification time is affected by the superheat parameter, resulting in a feasible and promising method to predict droplet deformation time through the fully resolved numerical simulations during the manufacturing process.