Effect of wave processes on splat formation during thermal spraying

Development of the waves on a splat surface during droplet flattening in th e process of thermal spraying is considered. As a result of instability of flattening, the capillary waves appear. The waves are shown to be in a form of the wave packets and solitory waves (solitons) depending on the paramet ers of an impinging droplet. Since the wave dissipation increases with incr easing wavelength, at the splat surface there exist mostly waves with a rel atively long wavelength that results in the formation of the wavy structure of the final splat and the development of the ring-shaped splats. The resu lts obtained agree well with the experimental data. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.