International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/hmt

Three-phase solidification of a liquid compound droplet on a curved

surface
Truong V. Vu
Faculty of Vehicle and Energy Engineering, Phenikaa University, Hanoi, Vietnam
Phenikaa Research and Technology Institute (PRATI), A&A Green Phoenix Group, 167 Hoang Ngan, Hanoi, Vietnam

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A compound droplet solidifying on a cold curved surface in a gaseous environment is numerically studied
Received 6 May 2021 by an axisymmetric three-phase front tracking method. The compound droplet containing an inner core
Revised 2 August 2021
of gas is initially assumed to be part of a sphere, and the curved surface is maintained at temperature
Accepted 20 August 2021
below the solidification point of the shell liquid. The effects of the radius of the cold surface, volume
change (in terms of the solid-to-liquid density ratio ρ sl ), supercooling degree (in terms of the Stefan
Keywords: number St), growth angle φ gr and shell liquid thickness on the solidified droplet shape, the solidification
Compound droplet rate and the solidification times are under consideration. Volume expansion (ρ sl < 1.0) induces an apex,
Solidification and volume shrinkage (ρ sl > 1.0) results in a cavity on top of the outer surface while volume change has a
Numerical simulation
minor effect on the inner surface of the solidified droplet. A more convex surface causes the solidification
Curved surface
process to finish earlier, whereas a more concave surface prolongs the entire solidification time. However,
the mean solidification rate, the tip angle at the droplet top and the additional height are not affected by
the radius of the curved surface. The tip angle is also slightly affected by the outer shape of the initial
droplet, the shell thickness and St while these parameters strongly affect the rate of solidification. It is
found that the completion of solidification around the inner core is not affected by the growth angle,
while it takes longer when increasing ρ sl , the size of the inner core or decreasing the Stefan number.
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Compound droplets with sizes from a few micrometers to a
few millimeters can be found in many industrial applications and
processes [1,2]. Some typical applications are light structures [3],
medication technology [4] or semiconductor processing [5]. In such
applications, a compound droplet can deform, break up and even
change in phase, e.g., from liquid to solid [5–7]. Therefore, there is
no doubt that knowing the phase-change process of a compound
droplet becomes a crucial role in both academia and industry. In
this study, we consider only compound droplets that have an outer
interface that completely encloses one or more inner droplets (or
core), i.e., type-A (or B-) compound droplets [8–10]. Another type
of compound droplets called a Janus droplet (or partially engulfed
compound droplet) is not considered in this study [11–13].
A simple droplet may be considered as a special compound
droplet that contains no core or no inner droplet. The liquid-to-
solid phase-change process of a simple droplet has been well stud-
ied. For example, Enríquez et al. [14] described the freezing pro-
cess of a water droplet on a cold surface. The ice-water interface
E-mail address: truong.vuvan@phenikaa-uni.edu.vn
propagated from the cold surface to the top of the droplet, and the
frozen droplet exhibited an apex at the droplet top. Marin et al.
[15] experimentally found that the cone angle formed at the top
of such a frozen water droplet was independent of the supercool-
ing degree of the surface or the initial water droplet shape. Some
other recent experimental investigations of a water droplet on a
cold surface can be found in [16,17]. A key to the formation of a
conical top of the frozen water droplet is water denser than ice
[18]. Theoretical models for the frozen water droplet on a cold sur-
face were developed by [18,19] in which volume expansion upon
freezing and a contact angle was included. However, these theo-
retical models assumed that the solid-liquid interface was flat. In
contrast, Tembely and Dolatabadi’s theoretical model [20] did not
limit the freezing interface and more correctly reflected the phys-
ical interface near the three-phase line as observed in the experi-
ments [15]. Numerical simulation studies with attention to volume
change were also conducted for a simple droplet solidifying on a
cold plate. For instance, a finite element method was used by Vi-
rozub et al. [21]. Shetabivash and co-workers [22] used a multi-
ple level set method in which one level-set was for the gas-liquid
interface and the other one for the freezing interface. A volume
of fluid method implemented in the Fluent software was used by
Zhang et al. [23]. A Lattice Boltzmann method was also devel-

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2021.121881
0017-9310/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
T.V. Vu
oped for the freezing process of a droplet on a cold surface [24].
Even though these numerical methods yielded reasonably accurate
frozen droplets with the presence of a pointy top, the effect of the
growth angle at the three-phase line has not been examined in de-
tail. Filling this gap, Vu and co-workers [25,26] extended the front-
tracking method [27] to handle the three-phase issue raised in the
droplet solidification with attention to the effect of the growth an-
gle. It was found that the tip angle on top of the solidified droplet
decreases with an increase in the value of the growth angle. This
result conformed to the experimental observation reported in Sat-
unkin’s work [28], in which the author found that the growth an-
gle is zero for water, about 12° for silicon, 14° for germanium, 28°
for indium antimonide and so on. In addition, like water, silicon
and germanium also have their solid phase lighter than their liquid
phase, thus a conical top surface is also presented after complete
solidification [28,29].
Obviously, numerous studies on volume change have been car-
ried out for a droplet solidifying on a cold plate as previously in-
troduced. However, these studies focused solely on droplets located
on a flat surface. There are very few works considering droplets
on a curved surface. Jin et al. [30] experimentally examined the
freezing process of a water droplet on the cold surface of cylinders
with a radius varying from 10 mm to 25 mm. The authors found
that the shape of the frozen droplet was slightly affected by the
cylinder radius. Ju and co-workers [31] investigated a water droplet
freezing on the cold surface of various spheres. Like Jin et al. [30],
it was found that the size of the sphere had a minor effect on the
ice droplet after complete freezing [31]. Unlike Ju et al. [31] and Jin
et al. [30] where the cold surface was known as a convex one [32],
Zhang and co-workers [33] considered a cold concave surface with
a radius varying in the range of 10 – 25 mm. The authors reported
that the radius of the cold surface did not result in any remarkable
variation of the ice droplet.
The above investigations focused only on simple droplets, while
phase-change heat transfer processes of compound droplets can
be found in, e.g., [5,6]. By using jet instability, Vu and co-workers
[6] produced gas-in-molten metal droplets in the air. The shell
molten metal of the compound droplet solidified when the droplet
came into contact with a cold environment or surface. Similarly,
Bhagat et al. [5] formed compound droplets of germanium and
found that the compound droplet had a horn on its outer surface
after complete crystallization due to volume expansion. In addi-
tion to volume expansion, the apex on the external surface of the
droplet is also induced by non-zero growth angles [25,28]. A recent
numerical simulation of the liquid-to-solid phase-change process
of a compound droplet was performed by Ho et al. [34]. The front-
tracking method was used to track the evolution of the solid-liquid
and gas-liquid interfaces. The authors showed that the compound
droplet also had an apex on top of the outer surface after solidifi-
cation because of volume expansion. However, this numerical work
was limited to compound droplets on a horizontal surface.
Clearly, the liquid-solid phase change of a droplet on a cold sur-
face has received a lot of attention. While cold flat surfaces were
well conducted, only a few researches considered a curved surface.
Furthermore, to our best knowledge, no numerical work has been
carried out so far for a compound droplet on a curved surface. Ac-
cordingly, it is necessary to bridge this gap in understanding the
solidification of compound droplets because it is very important in
many applications of compound droplets, e.g., [5,6,35]. This is the
primary focus of the present study, which employs a numerical ap-
proach [36] to track the motion of the solidification interface and
reveal the effects of some typical parameters on the final prod-
uct of a compound droplet on a curved surface. The investigated
compound droplet surrounded by a gas environment consists of a
shell liquid enclosing a gas bubble, which is partially wetted on
a cold curved surface. This cold surface causes the shell liquid of
2
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881
the compound droplet to solidify. This problem frequently happens.
For instance, a simple droplet comes into contact with a surface,
a gaseous bubble is trapped in between the droplet and the sur-
face, e.g., during droplet printing [37,38], which forms a compound
droplet. More directly, a compound droplet impacts on the surface
[39]. In many applications, the contact surface is not “perfectly flat”
but curved due to the target surface morphology [40,41] or succes-
sive deposition (i.e., impact on the other solidified droplets) [42].
2. Problem description and numerical method
We consider a single-core compound droplet on a curved sur-
face as shown in Fig. 1. The problem is assumed to be axisym-
metric. The compound droplet consists of two interfaces: an inner
interface containing gas – inner gas core – and an outer interface
– outer droplet. Initially, the shell of the compound droplet is fully
liquid and has a melting temperature denoted by Tm . The curved
surface has a radius denoted by Rw and is always maintained at the
temperature Tcold  Tm , i.e., cold surface. The curved surface can be
concave, as shown in Fig. 1, or convex [32]. To ease understanding
of a convex or concave surface, we simply define Rw  0 if concave
and Rw < 0 if convex. The lowest (highest) point of the concave
(convex) surface is located at (0, Hw ). The compound droplet stays
on the curved surface, and its inner and outer interfaces form, re-
spectively, inner and outer angles θ i and θ o at the surface. To sim-
plify the problem, at time t = 0, we assume that the droplet has
a spherical cap for the inner and outer interfaces, and the initial
volumes of the inner core and the outer droplet are respectively
denoted by Vi 0 and Vo 0 . Accordingly, the equivalent radii Ri and Ro
of the inner core and the outer droplet are defined as
Ri = [3Vi0 /(4π )]1/3 , Ro = [3Vo0 /(4π )]1/3 (1)
Because the temperature of the curved surface is lower than the
fusion temperature of the shell liquid of the compound droplet, the
shell liquid performs the phase-change process when the droplet is
placed on the curved surface. The phase-change interface moves
from the curved surface to the droplet top. During the solidifi-
cation process, three interfaces including the solid-liquid, liquid-
gas and solid-gas interfaces meet at the tri-junction lines or triple
points as indicated in Fig. 1. At these triple points, a growth angle
φ gr is defined as the angle between the tangent of the liquid-gas
interface and that of the solid-gas interface (Fig. 1) [25,34]. Like
our previous studies [36,43], we assume a constant growth angle
φ gr = constant. Assuming immiscible, incompressible and Newto-
nian fluids, the governing equations, in terms of one-fluid repre-
sentation, include
∂ (ρ u )   
+ ∇ · ρ uu = −∇ p + ∇ · μ ∇ u + ∇ uT
∂t 
 
+ σ κδ x − x f n f dS + ρ f + ρ g (2)
f

∂ (ρ C p T )
+ ∇ · ( ρ C p T u ) = ∇ · ( k∇ T ) + q˙ δ (x − xf )dS + ρC p H
∂t
f
(3)
1
1 1
  
∇ ·u= − δ x − x f q˙ dS (4)
Lh ρs ρl
f
Here, ρ and μ are respectively the density and viscosity. Cp and
k are respectively the heat capacity and thermal conductivity. The
velocity vector and pressure are respectively denoted by u = (u, v)
and p. σ denotes the interfacial tension coefficient, and κ is twice
T.V. Vu
Fig. 1. Schematic sketch of an axisymmetric single-core compound droplet solidifying on a curved surface held at temperature Tcold below the solidification point Tm of
the shell liquid. The curved surface has a radius denoted by Rw . Initially, the droplet is placed on the surface at an inner wetting angle θ i and outer angle θ o . During
solidification, solid, liquid and gas meet at three-phase lines, i.e., triple points, at which the growth angle φ gr is specified. In terms of the front-tracking technique, the
interface is represented by discrete points on a Eulerian background grid.
mean curvature. g is the gravitational acceleration, and f and H de-
note the momentum and energy forcing terms [44]. T denotes tem-
perature except for superscript T denoting the transpose. Subscript
f denotes interface, and subscripts s and l denote solid and liquid,
respectively. δ is the Dirac delta function, and x and xf denote the
position vector and that indicating the location of the interface. nf
is the unit vector normal to the interface. Lh is the latent heat of
solidification and q˙ – heat flux at the solid-liquid interface – is de-
fined as
∂T ∂T
q˙ = ks − kl
∂n s
∂n l In Eq. (8), h is the background grid spacing. Ts is the tempera-
Eq. (4) stands for volume change upon solidification [25].
To solve the problem, we use an axisymmetric front-tracking
method with the momentum and energy forcing terms as used in
our previous study [34]. Accordingly, the left boundary of the com-
putational domain is specified by the axisymmetric condition. The
top and right boundaries are defined with the full-slip condition
while the bottom is non-slip. The temperature Tcold of the curved
surface is kept constant by the energy forcing term H, and the no-
slip boundary condition on the solid-liquid and solid-gas interfaces
is enforced by the momentum forcing term f, as described in detail
in [44].
At a certain time t, the droplet interfaces including the liquid-
gas, solid-gas and liquid-solid (or solidifying) interfaces are repre-
sented by Lagrangian grid points xf (t) on the fixed, rectangular
background grid (Fig. 1). At the next time t + t, the new position
xf (t + t) of an interface point is given as
x f (t + t ) = x f (t ) + tVn n f
In Eq. (6), Vn is specified as follows:
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881
- For the interface point belongs to the gas-liquid interface, Vn is
an area-weighted interpolation from the velocities on four near-
est background grid nodes [27];
- For the interface point belongs to the solid-liquid interface
q˙ f
Vn = (7)
ρs L h
Here, q˙ f is calculated from Eq. (5) by a probe technique [45]:
1
q˙ f = (ks (Ts − Tm ) − kl (Tm − Tl ) ) (8)
(5) h
ture at the point in the solid, which is on the normal to the inter-
face and at a distance h away from the interface point. Similarly,
Tl is the temperature of the point on the normal drawn to the liq-
uid phase and at the same distance h from the interface. Note that
Eq. (6) applies for the gas-liquid and liquid-solid interfaces. The
point on the gas-solid interface is the intersection of the gas-liquid
and liquid-solid interfaces along with applying a constant growth
angle at the triple points.
Gas, liquid, solid and their properties (e.g., ρ ) are specified by
two indicator functions I1 and I2 that are reconstructed from the
location of the interface points [34]:
ρ = I1 ρs + (1 − I1 )(I2 ρl + (1 − I2 )ρg ) (9)
In Eq. (9), subscript g represents gas. I1 equals 1 in the solid
phase and 0 in the other phases, and I2 equals 1 in the liquid phase
and 0 in the other phases. The points belonging to the liquid-gas
interface are also used to compute the interfacial tension force.
(6)
The rectangular background grid is used to solve the energy
and momentum equations by discretizing the spatial derivatives
3
T.V. Vu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881

τ = 0 the compound droplet and its surrounding gas are set at

Tn 0 = Tn (τ = 0) = 1.0. Here, τ and Tn are the dimensionless time
and normalized temperature defined as
 
τ = t kl / ρl Cpl R2o , Tn = (T − Tcold )/(Tm − Tcold ) (13)
The length scale is Ro and the velocity scale is Uc , Uc =
Fig. 2. Validation for a water droplet freezing on a cold curved surface [31]. The kl /(ρl C pl Ro ).
surface temperature is – 9.5°, and the surface radius is 15 mm. In (a) and (b), the
left side is the experimental droplet, and the right side is the computation droplet.
3. Grid and method validation

by central differences and a predictor-corrector method for time In the present study, we use the domain with a size specified as
integration. For more details on the method, one can find in, e.g., 3Ro × 6Ro and a grid resolution of 192 × 384. The domain size and
[25,27,34]. the grid resolution are based on our previous work [34] in which
Like our previous study [34], the following parameters are used: the grid resolution was coarser but still yielded reliable results.
Because detailed experimental data on the solidification pro-
C pl μl C pl (Tm − Tcold ) ρl gR2o μl cess of a compound droplet on a curved surface do not exist, we
Pr = , St = , Bo = ,Oh = (10)
kl Lh σ ρl R o σ here validate the method by performing the simulation of a sim-
ple droplet on a convex surface reported by Ju et al. [31]. As de-
Ri ρs ρg μg scribed in Ju et al. [31], at the beginning of solidification, the wa-
Rio = ,ρ = ,ρ = ,μ = (11) ter droplet is static, and the radius of the curved surface is 15 mm
Ro sl ρl gl ρl gl μl
(Fig. 2a). The surface was maintained at – 9.5°. The frozen droplets
ks kg C ps C pg are shown in Fig. 2b. The computed freezing time is about 22.6 s
ksl = , k = , C psl = ,C = (12) that results in a relative error of less than 8%, as compared to
kl gl kl C pl pgl C pl
the experimental value [31]. Basing on the properties of water,
Because of the presence of the curved surface and the ini- we use the following parameters for this comparison, Pr = 7.0,
tial and solidified shapes of the droplet specified by the wet- Oh = 0.01, St = 0.12, Bo = 0.29, ρ sl = 0.9, ρ gl = μgl = 0.05,
ting and growth angles, the present study is also characterized ksl = 4.0, Cpsl = 0.5, kgl = 0.05, Cpgl = 0.2 and φ gr = 0°. This com-
by Rw /Ro – the radius ratio of the curved surface to the outer parison shows that the numerical method predicts well the frozen
droplet, φ gr , θ i and θ o . To reduce the number of the parameters droplet after complete freezing. Other validations for a droplet on
under consideration, we fix the values of the following parameters: a flat surface can be found in [36,43], in which the morphology of
Pr = 0.01, Oh = 0.01, Bo = 1.0, ρ gl = μgl = 0.05, ksl = Cpsl = 1.0, the freezing front and droplet at the intermediate moments during
kgl = 0.005 and Cpgl = 0.24. We also assume θ i = 90° and at time the freezing process was provided. For compound droplets without

Fig. 3. Evolution of the solidifying front with the normalized velocity and temperature fields from (a) the beginning τ = 0 to (f) the end of solidification τ = τ o = 7.3. Other
times show (b) τ = 1.0, (c) τ = 1.7, (d) τ = τ i = 5.2 – right after completion of solidification around the inner core and (e) τ = 5.9. (g) Temporal variations of the average
height Hs of the solidifying front and its average velocity Vnsl . The horizontal arrow with its magnitude in (b) – (f) shows the reference vector. The dot lines in (g) show τ i
and τ o . The parameters are provided in the text.

4
T.V. Vu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881

Fig. 4. Effect of the outer wetting contact angle θ o . (a) Comparison between θ o = 60° and θ o = 120° at τ = 2.1 for the droplet shape with the normalized temperature and
normalized velocity fields. (b) Solidified droplet shape for various θ o . (c) Temporal variation of the average height Hs of the solidifying interface for various θ o . (d) Variations
with respect to θ o of the outer solidification time τ o , the inner solidification time τ i and the average space-time velocity Usl of the solidifying interface. (e) Variations with
respect to θ o of the tip angle α t and the additional height Hsf – H0 of the droplet. The horizontal arrow with its magnitude in (a) shows the reference vector. The lines in
(d) and (e) show the data fitting. The parameters are provided in the text.

phase change, validations can be found in, e.g., [46]. These valida-
tions support the accuracy of the computed results presented in
this paper.
4. Results and discussion
A typical case of solidification on a curved surface with St = 0.1,
Rw /Ro = 10, Ri /Ro = 0.5, ρ sl = 0.9, φ gr = 0° and θ o = 90° is shown
in Fig. 3. Rw /Ro = 10 indicates that the cold surface is concave and
thus, as compared to that on the horizontal surface [25,34], the
compound droplet on this surface is higher at τ = 0.0 (Fig. 3a).
More liquid accumulates at the center as compared to that on
the flat surface. Accordingly, we observe a rather strong velocity
field at τ = 1.0 and 1.7 before the liquid phase completely solid-
ifies around the inner core (at τ = τ i = 5.2, Fig. 3d). The veloc-
ity at these times also indicates that the droplet oscillates during
this stage of solidification. This oscillation results in the wavy sur-
face on the outer droplet after solidification [34]. The time τ i , i.e.,
time for complete solidification around the inner core, is called
the “inner solidification time”. After this time, the droplet top is
less oscillated, and there is only the presence of the flow induced
by volume expansion because of solid less dense than liquid (i.e.,
ρ sl = 0.9, Fig. 3e) [25,34]. Consequently, the droplet forms an apex
at the top after complete solidification at τ = τ o = 7.3 (Fig. 3f). τ o
is time for completing the entire solidification process and called
the “outer solidification time”, or simply called “the solidification
time” of the compound droplet. The tip angle at the solidified
droplet top is denoted by α t (Fig. 3f). It is found that α t is around
65°.
Like the droplet on the horizontal surface [25,34], the droplet
on the curved surface has a high solidification rate during the ini-
tial stage of solidification. Therefore, the average growth velocity
Vnsl of the solidifying front, i.e., the average value of the veloci-
ties of all points on the solid-liquid interface, is rather high during
this stage (the circle line in Fig. 3g). This results in a high slop of
the average height Hs of the solidifying interface (the triangle line
in Fig. 3g). We also see a very high Vnsl during the last stage of
solidification when the solid-liquid interface is almost at the top.
As mentioned in our previous work [34], unlike the simple droplet
[25], we see a sudden change in the slope of the line Hs (τ ) before
and after the moment of completing solidification around the in-
ner core, i.e., at time τ i . This is because no heat directly releases to
the gas phase in the inner core that has a lower heat transfer rate
as compared to the solid phase after τ = τ i . After complete solid-
ification, the height of the droplet is added by a value called the
“additional height” Hsf – H0 . Here, Hsf is the height of the solidified
droplet, Hsf = Hs (τ = τ o ), (Fig. 3f) and H0 is the initial height of
the liquid compound droplet. It is found that Hsf – H0 is equal to
about 0.156H0 while the volume of the droplet increases about 11%
after complete solidification because of volume expansion.
In the following, the influences of some main parameters will
be revealed.

5
T.V. Vu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881

Fig. 5. Effect of the surface radius Rw /Ro . (a) Comparison between Rw /Ro = −5 and Rw /Ro = 5 at τ = 2.2 for the droplet shape with the normalized temperature and
normalized velocity fields. (b) Solidified droplet shape for various Rw /Ro . (c) Temporal variation of the average height Hs of the solidifying interface for various Rw /Ro . (d)
Variations with respect to Rw /Ro of the outer solidification time τ o , the inner solidification time τ i and the average space-time velocity Usl of the solidifying interface. (e)
Variations with respect to Rw /Ro of the tip angle α t and the additional height Hsf – H0 of the droplet. The horizontal arrow with its magnitude in (a) shows the reference
vector. The lines in (d) and (e) show the data fitting. The parameters are provided in the text.

4.1. Effect of the outer wetting angle θ o
When a droplet stays on a surface, the droplet may form on the
surface at a certain wetting angle which depends on the droplet
properties and surface morphology. The influences of the outer
droplet shape at the beginning of solidification, in terms of the
outer wetting angle, are depicted in Fig. 4. Note that the value
of θ o is varied but the drop volume and thus the size Ro remain
unchanged. The parameters are St = 0.1, Rw /Ro = 10, Ri /Ro = 0.5,
ρ sl = 0.9, φ gr = 0° and θ o = 60° – 130°. For θ o = 60°, the droplet
has a wide spreading with a large area of contact with the surface
(the left side of Fig. 4a). Increasing the value of θ o to 120° while
keeping the inner core unchanged decreases the contact area and
makes more liquid accumulate in the center region. Consequently,
at time τ = 2.1, the liquid comes down more strongly in the case
of the large θ o than in the case of the small θ o , as illustrated in
Fig. 4a. As a result of a smaller contact area, the heat released from
the liquid decreases during solidification by increasing the contact
angle. Therefore, Fig. 4a indicates, at this time, that the location
of the solidifying front for θ o = 60° has progressed further than
for θ o = 120°. It confirms that increasing the contact angle slows
down the solidification process as shown in Fig. 4c. Therefore, an
increase in θ o leads to a decrease in the averaged space-time ve-
locity of the solidifying interface Usl (the triangle in Fig. 4d) de-
fined as
 H0 is caused by volume expansion due to density difference be-
1
Usl = Vnsl dt
to
In Eq. (14), Vnsl is the average velocity of all points of the solid-
ifying interface at time t. to is the solidification time or the outer
solidification time, i.e., time to complete the entire solidification
process. We also use ti called “the inner solidification time” which
is time to complete the solidification process around the inner
core. In other words, ti is the time for the triple point on the inner
interface to move from the bottom to the top of the inner core.
The corresponding dimensionless times are τ o and τ i (Fig. 4d), as
earlier mentioned.
A linear fit to the variation of Usl with respect to θ o (in radian)
gives Usl /Uc = – 0.1722θ o + 0.5165 with the maximum relative er-
ror of 5.45% (the dash-dot line in Fig. 4d). In accordance with a
reduction in Usl , the inner and outer solidification times τ i and τ o
are increased with an increase in the outer wetting angle, as in-
dicated by the circles (τ i ) and the squares (for τ o ) in Fig. 4d. The
second-order polynomial fits to these times provide τ o = 8.1112θ o 2
– 18.056θ o + 15.342 (the dash line, Fig. 4d) and τ i = 3.869θ o 2 –
9.14θ o + 9.7744 (the solid line, Fig. 4d). The maximum errors of
these fits are 8.5% and 6.5%, respectively, for τ o and τ i .
Because of the same volume, increasing the outer wetting an-
gle increases the initial height H0 of the compound droplet. Hence,
the height of the compound droplet (i.e., the height of the solid-
ified droplet Hsf ) after complete solidification increases with θ o
(Fig. 4b and c). However, the additional height of the droplet at
the end of the solidification process, i.e., Hsf – H0 , is decreased
with θ o (the circles in Fig. 4e). The presence of a non-zero Hsf –
(14) tween the solid and liquid phases, i.e., ρ sl = 0.9 [28,47]. As indi-

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T.V. Vu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881

Fig. 6. Effect of the solid-to-liquid density ratio ρ sl . (a) Comparison between ρ sl = 0.8 and ρ sl = 1.1 at τ = 3.6 for the droplet shape with the normalized temperature and
normalized velocity fields. (b) Solidified droplet shape for various ρ sl . (c) Temporal variation of the average height Hs of the solidifying interface for various ρ sl . (d) Variations
with respect to ρ sl of the outer solidification time τ o , the inner solidification time τ i and the average space-time velocity Usl of the solidifying interface. (e) Variations with
respect to ρ sl of the tip angle α t and the additional height Hsf – H0 of the droplet. The horizontal arrow with its magnitude in (a) shows the reference vector. The lines in
(d) and (e) show the data fitting. The parameters are provided in the text.

cated in Fig. 4e, it is found that a decrease in Hsf – H0 with θ o (in
radian) follows (Hsf – H0 )/Ro = – 0.1019θ o 2 + 0.1997θ o + 0.1605
with the maximum error of 1.2% (the solid line in Fig. 4e). More-
over, as a result of volume expansion, the solidified droplet has an
apex at the droplet top [34]. This apex corresponds to a tip an-
gle α t . It is found that increasing θ o in the range of 60° – 130°
has a minor effect on the tip angle (the squares in Fig. 4e). It is
consistent with the experimental observations for simple droplets
[31]. We find that the droplet with θ o in the range of 60° –
130° yields a tip angle α t = 64.7° ± 1.43°. Our result for the
tip angle can be referred to water droplets that also have simi-
lar volume expansion (i.e., ρ sl ≈ 0.9) and the growth angle (i.e.,
φ gr = 0°) upon freezing [15]. Marin and co-workers [15] experi-
mentally found that for frozen water drops the tip angle α t is var-
ied from 65.5° to 73.5°. Theoretically, these authors found α t = 64°
– 69°. It is evident that our computational tip angles are in close
agreement with the theoretical and experimental results of Marin
et al. [15]. Even though θ o has an effect on the inner solidification
time but the variation of θ o from 60° to 130° makes no change
in the shape of the inner core after solidification, as exemplified
in Fig. 4b.
Moreover, Fig. 4a and b indicates that the droplet with
θ o = 120° causes stronger undulation on the outer surface of the
solidified drop after complete solidification as compared to that
with a lower wetting angle. This is because increasing the value
of the wetting angle causes the liquid to accumulate more near the
axis of symmetry, and thus causes the droplet top to more oscillate
during the solidification [34].
4.2. Effect of the curved surface radius Rw
Fig. 5a shows a compound droplet solidifying at τ = 2.2 on a
convex surface with Rw /Ro = –5 (left side) in comparison with that
on a concave surface with Rw /Ro = 5 (right side). The other param-
eters are St = 0.1, Ri /Ro = 0.5, ρ sl = 0.9, φ gr = 0° and θ o = 100°. At
this time, the liquid phase is moving up, but with different mag-
nitudes for two droplets. The droplet on the concave surface (in
the right side of Fig. 5a) has a stronger flow field than that in the
left one because the droplet on the concave surface has more liq-
uid accumulating at the droplet center than that on the convex
surface. As a result of increasing the value of Ro /Rw from a more
convex surface (Rw < 0) to a more concave surface (Rw > 0), the
compound droplet becomes higher with more liquid accumulating
at the center, and thus the solidified droplet height increases with
Ro /Rw (Fig. 5b). Consequently, the solidification process needs more
time τ o to complete the entire fluid of the shell when Ro /Rw in-
creases from – 1/5 to 1/5, as indicated in Fig. 5d (the square sym-
bols). It is found that τ o = 1.2301Ro /Rw + 8.3756 with the max-
imum error of 0.67% (the dash line in Fig. 5d). Even though τ o
increases with Ro /Rw , the mean solidification rate is slightly in-
fluenced by the shape of the surface (the triangle symbols with
the dash-dot line keeping horizontal). This is not what we had ex-
pected (i.e., increasing Ro /Rw would decrease the rate of solidifica-
tion).
However, we see that the inner triple point has gone closer to
the axis of symmetry for Rw /Ro = 5 than that for Rw /Ro = –5 at
τ = 2.2. This indicates that when changing from the convex sur-

7
T.V. Vu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881

Fig. 7. Effect of the inner-to-outer radius ratio Ri /Ro . (a) Comparison between Ri /Ro = 0.4 and Ri /Ro = 0.7 at τ = 2.5 for the droplet shape with the normalized temperature
and normalized velocity fields. (b) Solidified droplet shape for various Ri /Ro . (c) Temporal variation of the average height Hs of the solidifying interface for various Ri /Ro . (d)
Variations with respect to Ri /Ro of the outer solidification time τ o , the inner solidification time τ i and the average space-time velocity Usl of the solidifying interface. (e)
Variations with respect to Ri /Ro of the tip angle α t and the additional height Hsf – H0 of the droplet. The horizontal arrow with its magnitude in (a) shows the reference
vector. The lines in (d) and (e) show the data fitting. The parameters are provided in the text.

face to the concave surface, the compound droplet terminates its
solidification process around the inner core earlier (Fig. 5c). This is
confirmed by the circles shown in Fig. 5d. A line matching these
circles gives τ i = –1.6635Ro /Rw + 5.765. The maximum error of
this fit is 1.1%. Even though an increase in Ro /Rw leads to an in-
crease in the solidified compound droplet height (Fig. 5b and c),
it has no effect on the additional height of the droplet, as shown
by the circles in Fig. 5e (the solid line remaining horizontal from
left to right). Consequently, the tip angle is also independent of the
shape of the contact surface (Fig. 5b and the squares in Fig. 5e). It
is found that the variation of Ro /Rw from –1/5 to 1/5 yields a tip
angle α t = 65° ± 0.5° (the dash line in Fig. 5e). This finding is
consistent with the experimental observation reported by Ju et al.
[31] in which the cone on top of the frozen water droplets was al-
most constant for different convex surfaces. In addition, the values
of the tip angle is in agreement with experiments of Marin et al.
[15] and again confirms that the formation of the cone at the drop
top is almost independent of the cold surface morphology as re-
ported by Ismail and Waghmare [48].
4.3. Effect of the density ratio ρ sl
It has been demonstrated that the liquid moves away from the
solidifying interface when the volume expands while it flows to-
wards the phase-change interface when the volume shrinks [25].
Accordingly, at τ = 3.6 (Fig. 6a) there is a flow from the solid-
liquid interface while the liquid near the droplet top is going down
for ρ sl = 0.8, i.e., volume expansion. In contrast, at this time the
liquid seems to flow into the solid phase for ρ sl = 1.1 as a re-
sult of volume shrinkage. The other parameters for the calculation
shown in Fig. 6 are St = 0.1, Ri /Ro = 0.5, Rw /Ro = 10, φ gr = 0°
and θ o = 100°. Because of this effect of volume change upon so-
lidification, the final solidified product, i.e., the form of the solid-
ified droplet, behaves differently when the density ratio changes
between 0.8 and 1.2. Volume expansion (ρ sl < 1.0) produces a so-
lidified droplet with a conical top while volume shrinkage (ρ sl >
1.0) induces a cavity, as illustrated in Fig. 6b. Such cavity formation
is frequently observed in casting [37]. In consequence, the solidi-
fied droplet becomes smaller by raising the density ratio (Fig. 6b
and c) [34,37]. However, volume change introduces a very minor
effect on the form of the inner core.
The comparison in Fig. 6a also indicates that at τ = 3.6, the
solid-liquid interface in the case of ρ sl = 0.8 has moved further
than that for ρ sl = 1.1. It illustrates that volume shrinkage reduces
the solidification rate while volume expansion increases the rate of
solidification, as confirmed in Fig. 6d, where increasing the value
of ρ sl leads to a decrease in Usl (the triangles). It is found that
Usl /Uc = – 0.1421ρ sl + 0.3454 (the dash-dot line). Because of a de-
crease in Usl when increasing ρ sl , the time τ i necessary to finish
solidification around the inner core increases with ρ sl , as shown in
Fig. 6d (the circles). A linear fit provides τ i = 4.4667ρ sl + 1.5528,
yielding the maximum error of 1.3% (the solid line in Fig. 6d).
In contrast to the variation of τ i with respect to ρ sl , increas-
ing ρ sl leads to a decrease in the time τ o necessary to complete
the entire process (the squares in Fig. 6d), i.e., τ o = 7.1061ρ sl 2 –
18.879ρ sl + 19.736 (with the maximum error of 0.2%) (the dash

8
T.V. Vu
Fig. 8. Effect of growth angle φ gr . (a) Comparison between φ gr = 5° and φ gr = 15° at τ = 2.3 for the droplet shape with the normalized temperature and normalized velocity
fields. (b) Solidified droplet shape for various φ gr . (c) Temporal variation of the average height Hs of the solidifying interface for various φ gr . (d) Variations with respect to
φ gr of the outer solidification time τ o , the inner solidification time τ i and the average space-time velocity Usl of the solidifying interface. (e) Variations with respect to φ gr of
the tip angle α t and the additional height Hsf – H0 of the droplet. The horizontal arrow with its magnitude in (a) shows the reference vector. The lines in (d) and (e) show
the data fitting. The parameters are provided in the text.
line in Fig. 6d). Even though the rate of solidification decreases,
this decrease in τ o when changing from expansion to shrinkage
is understandable because with the same volume of solid formed
the volume of the remaining liquid phase of the droplet increases
with a decrease in ρ sl from 1.2 to 0.8. Finally, the solidifying inter-
face takes longer to propagate to the droplet top. As a result, the
additional height Hsf – H0 of the compound droplet changes from
a positive value to a negative value when ρ sl increases from 0.8
to 1.2 (the circles in Fig. 6e). The second-order polynomial profile,
(Hsf – H0 )/Ro = 2.652ρ sl 2 – 7.8508ρ sl + 5.1156, (the solid line in
Fig. 6e) is a good approximation, i.e., the maximum error equal to
3.14%. Unlike τ o and the additional height, the tip angle increases
with ρ sl (the squares in Fig. 6f). It is found that this increase in the
tip angle follows well α t (in°) = 173.11ρ sl – 88.372 (the dash line
in Fig. 6f). The error is less than 4.2%. This finding is in line with
our earlier work [25,34].
4.4. Effect of the shell liquid thickness
Fig. 7 illustrates the effects of the shell liquid thickness, in
terms of Ri /Ro , on the solidification process of the droplet on the
curved surface with Rw /Ro = 10. The other parameters are St = 0.1,
Ri /Ro = 0.3 – 0.8, φ gr = 0°, ρ sl = 0.9 and θ o = 100°. The thickness
of the shell increases with a decrease in Ri /Ro , as exemplified in
Fig. 7a. Accordingly, the inner solidification time increases with a
decrease in the shell thickness (the circles in Fig. 7d). It is found
that τ i increases linearly with Ri /Ro , i.e., τ i = 17.629Ri /Ro – 3.2374
(the solid line in Fig. 7d). This is understood as the increase in Ri /Ro
9
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881
corresponds to the increase in the arc length to be completed by
the inner triple point (Fig. 7a). Also, because of a larger inner core,
there is an opposite circulation in the inner gas phase as compared
to that in the liquid phase for Ri /Ro = 0.7, whereas such circula-
tion is not available in the gaseous phase inside the inner core for
Ri /Ro = 0.3 (Fig. 7a).
As indicated in Fig. 7c, the average height profiles Hs of the so-
lidification interface for different shell liquid thickness almost over-
lap during solidification around the inner core. However, they be-
come different after that. Consequently, the whole process takes
more time, i.e., τ o (the squares in Fig. 7c), when the size of
the inner core increases. An approximation to this increase gives
τ o = 11.267(Ri /Ro )2 – 4.6536Ri /Ro + 7.9625 with the maximum
error of 0.65% (the dash line). The increase in the solidification
time confirms that the mean rate of solidification decreases with
a decrease in the thickness of the shell (the triangles with the fit
Usl /Uc = – 0.129Ri /Ro + 0.2801 represented by the dash-dot line).
This decrease is understandable because the decrease in the shell
liquid thickness corresponds to the decrease in the initial wetting
liquid area, and thus the effect of the cold surface becomes weaker.
The decrease in the wetting area (i.e., the contact area with the
curved surface) when increasing Ri /Ro can be referred to increasing
the wetting contact angle leading to the increase in the solidifica-
tion time [49] as earlier mentioned.
Because the variation of Ri /Ro contributes most to the inner
core and the shape of the inner core after complete solidification
still remains like a spherical cap, the outer shape of the solidified
droplet is not affected by the variation of the initial shell liquid
T.V. Vu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881

Fig. 9. Effect of growth angle St. (a) Comparison between St = 0.05 and St = 0.4 at τ = 2.3 for the droplet shape with the normalized temperature. (b) Solidified droplet
shape for various St. (c) Temporal variation of the average height Hs of the solidifying interface for various St. (d) Variations with respect to St of the outer solidification time
τ o , the inner solidification time τ i and the average space-time velocity Usl of the solidifying interface. (e) Variations with respect to St of the tip angle α t and the additional
height Hsf – H0 of the droplet. The lines in (d) and (e) show the data fitting. The parameters are provided in the text.

thickness (Fig. 7b). As a consequence, the additional height of the
droplet and the tip angle at the droplet top are slightly affected by
Ri /Ro (Fig. 7d).
4.5. Effect of the growth angle
Fig. 8a compares the droplet shape, the velocity and tempera-
ture fields at τ = 2.3 between φ gr = 5° and φ gr = 15°. The other
parameters include St = 0.1, Rw /Ro = 10, Ri /Ro = 0.5, ρ sl = 0.9
and θ o = 100°. At this time, the velocity for φ gr = 15° is stronger
than that for φ gr = 5°. As a result, the compound droplet for
φ gr = 15° is higher than that for φ gr = 5°. Consequently, the so-
lidified droplet after complete solidification becomes higher as the
growth angle increases, as shown in Fig. 8b. Because the initial
height of the droplet at the start of the process remains unchanged
for all growth angles, the additional height of the droplet at the
end of solidification increases with φ gr from 0° to 15° (the cir-
cles in Fig. 8e). It is found that this increase follows well (Hsf –
H0 )/Ro = 1.5543φ gr + 0.1931, (the solid line in Fig. 8e and φ gr in
radian), where the maximum error is found to be 2.45%. As a re-
sult of increasing the droplet height, the angle at the droplet top
decreases with the increase in φ gr (the squares in Fig. 8e), i.e.,
α t = –1.2436φ gr + 1.1244 (the dash line in Fig. 8e, the maximum
error of 1.6%). The increase in the height of the droplet also leads
to an increase in the entire solidification time τ o (the squares in
Fig. 8d), i.e., τ o = 7.62φ gr + 8.4333 (the dash line in Fig. 8d and
φ gr in radian). The increase in the droplet height and the decrease
in the tip angle with respect to the increase in the growth angle is
consistent with the theoretical calculation of Satunkin [28]. These
effects of the growth angle are also in accordance with experimen-
tal observations, e.g., an indium antimonide droplet with a growth
angle of 28° is higher and more conical than a germanium droplet
with a growth angle of 14° [28].
However, the average growth rate is almost independent of the
change in φ gr (the triangles in Fig. 8d). Accordingly, the inner so-
lidification time τ i is also independent of φ gr ranging between 0°
and 15° (the circles in Fig. 8d) even though the height of the inner
core after solidification is decreased (Fig. 8b). It can be understood
as illustrated in Fig. 8c, in which the variation of φ gr has a very
minor effect on the evolution of the solidifying interface when the
droplet performs solidification around the inner core.
4.6. Effect of the Stefan number
The effects of St on the solidification of the compound droplet
on the curved surface is shown in Fig. 9 with Rw /Ro = 10,
Ri /Ro = 0.5, ρ sl = 0.9, φ gr = 0° and θ o = 100°. With a low Ste-
fan number, e.g., St = 0.05 (the left side of Fig. 9a), at τ = 2.3
only a portion of the liquid phase has been solidified. However,
increasing the value of St to 0.4 (the right side of Fig. 9a), the
liquid-solid interface is close to the top at this time. This is be-
cause the increase in St decreases the latent heat of solidification
and thus increases the solidification rate, as illustrated by Usl var-
ied with St shown in Fig. 9d (the triangles). Usl is observed to in-
crease linearly with St by Usl /Uc = 1.4412 St + 0.1 (the dash-dot
line in Fig. 9d). Because of increasing the rate of solidification, the
inner and outer solidification times τ i (the circles in Fig. 9d) and
τ o (the squares in Fig. 9d) decrease rapidly with an increase in the

10
T.V. Vu
Stefan number, i.e., τ i = 0.6617St0.936 (the solid line in Fig. 9d) and
τ o = 1.1082St0.898 (the dash line in Fig. 9d). The maximum errors
for these fittings are 3.8% (for τ i ) and 6.7% (for τ o ).
Another way for interpretation of increasing the St number is
to increase the supercooling effect by decreasing the temperature
of the curved surface (Eq. (10)). Accordingly, the decrease of the
curved surface temperature results in the decrease of the solidi-
fication time. This tendency is completely consistent with exper-
imental measurements of, e.g., Ju et al. [31] or Zhang et al. [33].
Therefore, the temporal change in the average height of the solid-
ification front becomes more lateral when decreasing the value of
the Stefan number, as exemplified in Fig. 9c.
In contrast, the variation of St in the range of 0.025 – 1.8 has a
minor effect on the shape of the compound droplet after complete
solidification, as indicated in Fig. 9b. Consequently, the tip angle α t
and the additional height Hsf – H0 are slightly affected by St. This is
consistent with the finding in simple droplet experiments in which
the tip angle is almost independent of the cooling rate [15].
5. Conclusion
We have presented the numerical results, obtained using the
front-tracking method, of a compound droplet that solidifies on a
cold curved surface. The compound droplet contains an inner core
of gas, and the curved surface of radius Rw can be concave (Rw
> 0) or convex (Rw < 0). The time necessary to complete the en-
tire solidification process, i.e., the outer solidification time τ o , in-
creases when the curved surface changes from a convex shape to
a concave one. In contrast, such a variation from a more convex
surface to a more concave surface causes a decrease in the inner
solidification time τ i , i.e., time for completing solidification around
the inner core. However, the tip angle, i.e., the angle defined at the
droplet top, and the additional height, i.e., the difference between
the initial height and the final height of the droplet, after complete
solidification are independent of the surface radius. In contrast to
the curved surface, a decrease in the solid-to-liquid density ratio
ρ sl or an increase in the growth angle φ gr leads to a more coni-
cal solidified droplet. Further investigations on the Stefan number
St (from 0.025 to 1.6), the shell liquid thickness (in terms of Ri /Ro
from 0.3 to 0.8) and the shape of the outer droplet (in terms of
the outer wetting angle θ o from 60° to 130°) reveal that (i) τ i and
τ o increase with increasing θ o or Ri /Ro or decreasing St; (ii) the
tip angle induced by volume expansion is slightly affected by the
variations in these parameters; (iii) the additional height increases
with the decrease in θ o , and is slightly affected by Ri /Ro or St.
As far as we are aware, the present numerical simulations pro-
vide a more complete picture of the solidification process of com-
pound droplets on cold surfaces. However, further investigations
on, e.g., compound droplets with various inner wetting angles,
droplets under forced convection or droplets with two or more
inner cores should be performed. Fully three-dimensional simula-
tions are also challenging for such problems with the presence of
nearby droplets. In addition, a theoretical analysis should be con-
ducted to provide more complete prediction tools of investigations
on the problem.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The author declares that he has no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to in-
fluence the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Truong V. Vu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, In-
vestigation, Writing – review & editing.
11
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 181 (2021) 121881
Acknowledgments
This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Sci-
ence and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant num-
ber 107.03-2019.307.
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