LAUSR

Abstract The heat transfer dynamics inside the Drop-on-Demand (DoD) printhead play a significant role for improving temperature compensation and jetting reproducibility. A three-dimensional hybrid thermal lattice Boltzmann model is employed to explore the temperature distributions within the ink chamber in DoD droplet jetting process. The scenarios including heated walls resulting from deformation of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and heat sources coupled with heated substrate are investigated. It is found that the isotherms evolutions are hindered from heat walls to the center of ink chamber by the velocity fields during the droplet jetting process. The thermal fields adjacent to the inlet and outlet regions are affected by the thermal boundaries with lower temperature and exhibit meniscus isotherms. Attributing to the combined effects of advection-dominated heat transfer and velocity fields of jetting dynamics, the overall temperature distributions obtain the quicker stabilized status for coupled heat sources. Moreover, the temperature distributions in the lower-center region exhibit the vorticial structure. In summary, we illustrate the temporal evolutions of temperature distributions within ink chamber and offer an in-depth exploration of heat transfer dynamics coupled with velocity fields. It could be beneficial for exploring the first droplet dissimilarities and improving the temperature compensation.