A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists has simulated the droplet ejection process in an emerging metal 3D printing technique called “Liquid Metal Jetting” (LMJ), a critical aspect to the continued advancement of liquid metal printing technologies.

A comparison between the experimentally observed ejected droplet shape at break-up (a) and the simulated droplet shape (b) at various operating conditions approaching the experimental conditions. The simulated droplet shape significantly differs from experiments, highlighting the fact that essential physics appear to be missing from the model. Image courtesy of Andy Pascall/LLNL.
In the paper, the team describes the simulating of