Theoretical and experimental simulation of inkjet printing process: investigation of physical parameters of a droplet

Inkjet printing is based on a dynamical instability, and even though the underlying equations are those of fluid mechanics, the exact understanding of the droplet ejection dynamics is still today the focus of much research. In the past decade, it has been focused on the observation of individual droplet ejection and impact on substrates via high-speed camera setups. It is, however, insufficient to arrive at a clear separation of the effects of the different forces and factors at play, e.g., fluid parameters, nozzle geometry, shear rate at nozzle, heating and mechanically pushing of the ink influencing its viscosity. Therefore, this work is to investigate the simulation of the ejection of ink droplets through a Level Set method aimed at considering the coupling of the different physical effects involved. This paper presents the general approach to the simulation of the phenomenon as well as how comparison will be made with experimental data obtained at INT.