An Eulerian Method for Water Droplet Impingement by Means of an Immersed Boundary Technique

The estimation of water droplet impingement is the first step for a complete ice-accretion assessment. Basically two different numerical approaches can be found in literature: the Lagrangian and the Eulerian methods. The present paper describes the design and development of a water impingement simulation tool based on Eulerian droplet equations solved on Cartesian meshes by using an immersed boundary (IB) technique.

The robustness of the methodology and the accuracy of the approach are discussed. The method is applying to classical two- and three-dimensional test-cases for which experimental data are available in literature. The results will be discussed by comparing with experimental and body-fitted numerical solutions.