Numerical Investigation of a High-speed Droplet Impact onto a Rigid Surface*

The role of compressibility on impacts produced by high-speed liquid droplets is not well understood. The development of high-speed projectiles requires a better understanding of the forces imparted on the object and of the consequences of such impact. In this work, the impact of a three-dimensional initially spherical water droplet at Mach numbers greater than 1.2 on a rigid wall is computationally investigated. Numerical simulations are performed using a Phase-Field, finite volume scheme with adaptive mesh refinement. As the speed of the droplet increases, the role of compressibility becomes increasingly important and the potential for damage increases. The location of the maximum pressure seen on the wall is found to be away from the center of the impact at the interface of the droplet, potentially due to local compression of the liquid and complex wave structures near the air/water/wall interface.