Viscous Effects on Inertial Drop Formation

A. Deblais, M. A. Herrada, I. Hauner, K. P. Velikov, T. Van Roon, H. Kellay, J. Eggers, D. Bonn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The breakup of low-viscosity droplets like water is a ubiquitous and rich phenomenon. Theory predicts that in the inviscid limit one observes a finite-time singularity, giving rise to a universal power law, with a prefactor that is universal for a given density and surface tension. This universality has been proposed as a powerful tool to determine the dynamic surface tension at short time scales. We combine high-resolution experiments and simulations to show that this universality is unobservable in practice: in contrast to previous studies, we show that fluid and system parameters do play a role; notably a small amount of viscosity is sufficient to alter the breakup dynamics significantly.

Original languageEnglish
Article number254501
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume121
Issue number25
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Dec 2018

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Viscous Effects on Inertial Drop Formation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this