New Approach to Moisture Accumulation Assessment
Publication Date
8-26-2019
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
Daniel Felix Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science, Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Keywords
Moisture accumulation, Simulation, Particle physics, Molecular dynamics, Environmental testing
Abstract
We suggest an innovative approach to simulate moisture buildup on structures with arbitrary geometries and different surface adhesion characteristics. Using 3D particle physics, rain, snow and freezing rain buildup on flat and cylindrical surfaces was assessed. The numerically simulated moisture accumulations were subsequently successfully verified experimentally through a series of outdoor and indoor moisture accumulation experiments. We also conducted molecular dynamics simulations to assess how hydrogen bonds influence snow and rain adhesion on high and low energy substrates. The simulations supported the experimental observations, namely that freezing rain results in increased moisture adhesion and accumulation due to the spreading of the water droplets, resulting in more hydrogen bonds between water droplets and substrates than snow.
Publication Statement
Copyright held by author or publisher. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Recommended Citation
Bleszynski, M, and Kumosa, M. “New Approach to Moisture Accumulation Assessment.” Materials & Design, vol. 183, 2019, p. 108162. doi: 10.1016/j.matdes.2019.108162.