Simulation of Capillary Flow Along a Slot-die Head for Stripe Coatings

In the presence of ${\mu}-tip$ embedded in a slot-die head for stripe coatings, there arises the capillary flow that limits an increase of the stripe density, which is required for the potential applications in organic light-emitting diode displays. With an attempt to suppress it, we have employed a computational fluid dynamics software and performed simulations by varying the ${\mu}-tip$ length and the contact angles of the head lip and ${\mu}-tip$. We have first demonstrated that such a capillary flow phenomenon (a spread of solution along the head lip) observed experimentally can be reproduced by the computational fluid dynamics software. Through simulations, we have found that stronger capillary flow is observed in the hydrophilic head lip with a smaller contact angle and it is suppressed effectively as the contact angle increases. When the contact angle of the head lip increases from $16^{\circ}$ to $130^{\circ}$, the distance a solution can reach decreases sharply from $256{\mu}m$ to $44{\mu}m$. With increasing contact angle of the ${\mu}-tip$, however, the solution flow along the ${\mu}-tip$ is disturbed and thus the capillary flow phenomenon becomes more severe. If the ${\mu}-tip$ is long, the capillary flow also appears strong due to an increase of flow resistance (electronic-hydraulic analogy). It can be suppressed by reducing the ${\mu}-tip$ length, but not as effectively as reducing the contact angle of the head lip.

Stripe 코팅용 슬롯 다이 헤드 모세관 유동 전산모사