Title

Approach and coalescence of liquid drops in air

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Joseph Paulsen, Syracuse University

ORCID

Joseph Paulsen: 0000-0001-6048-456X

Document Type

Article

Date

2013

Keywords

ambient gas, coalescence of liquid drops, electrical methods, high speed imaging, in-vacuum, threshold approach, ultra-fast, viscous forces, drops, coalescence

Language

English

Official Citation

Approach and coalescence of liquid drops in air. JD Paulsen, Physical Review E 88, 063010 (2013).

Disciplines

Physics

Description/Abstract

The coalescence of liquid drops has conventionally been thought to have just two regimes when the drops are brought together slowly in vacuum or air: a viscous regime corresponding to the Stokes-flow limit and a later inertially dominated regime. Recent work found that the Stokes-flow limit cannot be reached in the early moments of coalescence, because the inertia of the drops cannot be neglected then. Instead, the drops are described by an "inertially limited viscous" regime, where surface tension, inertia, and viscous forces all balance. The dynamics continue in this regime until either viscosity or inertia dominate on their own. I use an ultrafast electrical method and high-speed imaging to provide a detailed description of coalescence near the moment of contact for drops that approach at low speed and coalesce as undeformed spheres. These measurements support a description of coalescence having three regimes. Signatures both before and after contact identify a threshold approach speed for deformation of the drops by the ambient gas.

ISSN

15393755

Additional Information

Physical Review allows its authors to archive pre-print, post-print, and publisher's versions of publications.

Recommended Citation

Approach and coalescence of liquid drops in air. JD Paulsen, Physical Review E 88, 063010 (2013).

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.