Investigations of sodium droplet spreading and evaporation on surfaces with different wettability based on lattice Boltzmann simulations

The spreading and evaporation of sodium droplets is one of the fundamental phenomena in high-temperature heat pipes. The LBM sodium two-phase flow and phase transition model, which can simulate a huge liquid–vapor density ratio, is first established and validated. Then, the spreading and evaporation processes of sodium droplets on solid walls with different wettability are numerically simulated and analyzed. The main conclusions obtained are as follows: (1) The dimensionless spreading diameter and time of the droplet spreading process conforms to Tanner's power law, and the power exponent has exponential relationship with the equilibrium wetting angle;(2) The maximum dimensionless spreading diameter is negatively and linearly correlated with the equilibrium wetting angle;(3) Evaporation of sodium droplets under constant heat flow conditions shows a mixed pattern. The droplets will be detached from the droplet wall at the late stage of evaporation, and the larger the equilibrium wetting angle the sooner the droplets detach.