In the last decade, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) has gained popularity for allowing the fabrication of pieces with complex shapes. The final quality of the pieces is strongly linked to the shape, size and surface finish of the strands deposited successively, which themselves depend on the printing parameters and extruded material properties. In this work, we present an experimental characterization of an extruded and deposited single strand of Poly-Lactic Acid (PLA), by means of high-speed visualization of the bead region between the substrate and the nozzle, where the molten polymer is still in liquid phase. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model proposed in literature, and, based on isothermal and viscous flow assumptions, is validated with this data in terms of strand height and meniscus shape. The characteristics of the printed layer are also confronted to the measurements of the solidified strands by microscopy, with a good agreement. The focus on high printing speeds allows extending the conclusions of previous studies. Regarding the surface finish, the roughness patterns detected on the printed strands are correlated to the velocity fluctuations of the printing head. The CFD model does not capture those thickness variations, however, due to not accounting for solidification.

We analyze the flow of a planar gas jet impinging on a thin film dragged by a vertical moving wall. In the coating industry, this configuration is known as jet wiping, a process in which impinging jets control the thickness of liquid coatings on flat plates withdrawn vertically from a coating bath. We present three-dimensional (3D) two-phase flow simulations combining large eddy simulation (LES) and volume of fluid techniques. Three wiping configurations are simulated and the results are validated with experimental data from previous works. Multiscale modal analysis is used to analyze the dynamic interaction between the gas flow and the liquid film. In particular, we present a combination of multiscale Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (mPOD) and correlation analysis. The mPOD is used to identify the dominant traveling wave pattern in the liquid film flow, and the temporal structures are used to determine the most correlated flow features in the gas jet. This allows for revealing a two-dimensional mechanism for wave formation in the liquid coat. Finally, we use the numerical results to analyze the validity of some of the critical assumptions underpinning the derivation of integral film models of jet wiping.

Paints and coatings often feature interfacial defects due to disturbances during the deposition process, which, if they persist until solidification, worsens the product quality. In this article, we investigate the stability of a thin liquid film dragged by a vertical substrate moving against gravity, a fundamental flow configuration in various coating processes. The receptivity of the liquid film to three-dimensional disturbances is analyzed with Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) and an in-house Integral Boundary Layer (IBL) film model. The latter was used for linear stability analysis and nonlinear wave propagation analysis. The numerical implementation of the IBL film model combines a finite volume formulation with a pseudo-spectral approach for the capillary terms that allows one to investigate non-periodic surface tension-dominated flows. The numerical model was successfully validated with DNS computations. The combination of these numerical tools allows one to describe the mechanisms of capillary and nonlinear damping and identify the instability threshold of the coating processes. The results show that transverse modulations can be beneficial for damping two-dimensional waves within the range of operational conditions considered in this study, which are relevant to air-knife and slot-die coating.

We investigate the dynamics of a gas jet impinging perpendicular to a thin liquid film dragged by a rising vertical substrate. This configuration is relevant to the jet-wiping process in hot-dip galvanization and it is unstable. Previous studies analysed the dynamics of the instability in the case of liquids with low Kapitza numbers (highly viscous liquids), more amenable to experimental and numerical investigations. This work extends the previous investigations by focusing on the wiping at much higher Kapitza numbers, which are more relevant to the galvanizing process. The simulations are carried out by combining volume of fluid and large-eddy simulations, and the dynamics of the gas–liquid interaction is analysed using extended multiscale proper orthogonal decomposition. The simulations allowed for analysing the jet-wiping instability in new flow conditions. Despite the largely different conditions, the results show that the interaction between the gas jet and the liquid film is qualitatively similar, featuring two-dimensional waves in the liquid correlated with oscillations and deflections of the gas jet in all cases. The wave characteristics (e.g. frequency and propagation speed) scale remarkably well using the Shkadov-like scaling based on the liquid, suggesting a dominant role of the liquid film in the coupling, and potentially enabling extrapolation of the results to a broader range of wiping conditions. Finally, we use the numerical results to discuss the limitations of liquid-film models, which constitute currently the only possible approach to study the jet-wiping process in industrial conditions.

This work investigates the hydrodynamics of jet wiping, a coating process in which a thin slot gas jet impinges on a coating film dragged by a moving strip; thus, reducing the coating thickness and developing a run-back flow. The interaction between the liquid film and the gas jet is highly unsteady, producing long-wavelength defects on the final product known as undulations. We perform Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of the process using High-Performance Computing (HPC) resources. A multi-scale modal analysis is then applied to decrypt the mechanism of wave formation. The main undulation pattern features two-dimensional waves and is correlated with a large-scale motion of the gas jet.