The purpose of this paper is to present and illustrate a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to study the process of a drop impacting on a dry solid surface. SPH is a Lagrangian mesh-free particle method that offers advantages in modeling the evolution of the liquid surface during drop impact. A new surface tension model is used. The artificial viscosity is also used, which is demonstrated to be, approximately, a linear function of the dynamic viscosity of the liquid. The SPH method is used to simulate different liquid drops impacting on dry surfaces. The numerical results agree with experimental data obtained from the literature. The influence of various parameters on the drop impact, including impact velocity, diameter, viscosity, surface tension, and density of the drop, is also studied. The results show that the dimensionless spreading diameter of the drop increases if the impact velocity, diameter, or density increases, while the increase in viscosity and surface tension decreases the spreading diameter. The results indicate that the drop impact depends more strongly on the viscosity and impact velocity than on the diameter, surface tension, and density of the drop. In addition to the impact of a spherical drop, the impact of an ellipsoidal drop on a dry surface is also studied. The results show that the aspect ratio of the drop has a significant influence on the outcome of drop impact.
Spherical drop impact on solid surfaces: Un-damped oscillation theoretical model