Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: Intuitively, slow droplets stick to a surface and faster droplets splash or bounce. However, recent work suggests that on non-wetting surfaces, whether microdroplets stick or bounce depends only on their size and fluid properties, but not on the incoming velocity. Here, we show using theory and experiments that even poorly wetting surfaces have a velocity-dependent criterion for bouncing of aqueous droplets, which is as high as 6 m/s for diameters of 30-50 microns on hydrophobic surfaces such as Teflon. We quantify this criterion by analyzing the interplay of dissipation, surface adhesion, and incoming kinetic energy, and describe a wealth of associated phenomena, including air bubbles and satellite droplets. Our results on inertial microdroplets elucidate fundamental processes crucial to aerosol science and technology.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Mclauchlan, Jamie, Walker, Jim S., Sanjay, Vatsal, Jalaal, Maziyar, Reid, Jonathan P., Squires, Adam M., Souslov, Anton
Language: English
Subfield: Computational Mechanics
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6979280902
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