Abstract: Thermal spraying is a technique within the field of surface treatment processes, where molten or semi molten metal droplets are heated and propelled onto a solid substrate. Then, the deposition of these droplets results in the formation of a splats, which progressively accumulate to form the coating. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the dynamics of droplets impingement, spreading and solidification in order to improve coatings quality. The main objective of this paper is to analyze, how the tilt angle of the substrate influences on the coating quality in industrial applications. Thus, this study simulates the deposition of successive aluminum droplets on a tilted stainless-steel substrate during the formation of the metallic lamella using Ansys code. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is employed to track the free surface of the droplets. In addition, the incompressible Navier–Stokes equation is applied to capture the dynamics of the droplets motion. The main findings reveal that an angled substrate can cause asymmetrical spreading of the impingement droplets, the droplets tilt to gravity direction, leading to poor droplet/substrate adhesion, and non-uniform thickness of coatings.

Key words: Thermal spraying , deposition, coating, VOF method, tilted substrate.