Dynamic Model of a Drop Shot from

an Inkjet Printer

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 Inkjet Technology
• Devices to eject small droplets of fluids
– Inkjet printers: Produce small dots on a sheet of paper to create images
– Micro droplet deposition for analysis and drug discovery

• Simulations to study and improve the inkjet’s performance

– Modify geometry
– Investigate effect of the ink’s fluid properties
 Inkjet Model
• Ink and air flow
Part initially filled with air
– Large density and viscosity gradients at
the fluid interface
– Surface tension at ink/air interface
– Position of the interface part of the solution
• Mathematical model Inlet

– Incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with

Target
variable density, variable viscosity, surface
tension and gravitation
– Level set method to track the moving Part initially filled with ink
ink/air interface in detail
– Axisymmetric model
 Fluid Flow Model
• Fluid flow is governed by the Navier-Stokes equations:
External forces or gravity
u
  
 u  u   p     u  uT   n  g , u  0
 t 
Surface tension
•  is the interface curvature
•  is the delta function concentrated to the interface
•  is the surface tension coefficient
• n is the unit normal to the interface
• ρ and μ is the density and viscosity, different for each fluid
 Representation of Fluid Interface
• The fluid interface is modeled with the level set function 
•  smooth step function:  < 0.5 in air,  > 0.5 in ink.  = 0.5 defines the fluid
interface
•  is transported with the velocity of the fluid:

 u    0
t

• Interface normal, curvature, density and viscosity are computed from :


n ,     n  0.5
   0.5

   air  ink   air 

  air  ink  air 
 Results
• Size and speed of ejected droplet can be calculated
• Influence of geometry, fluid properties etc can be studied
Available as an App