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Micro-splashing by drop impacts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2012
Abstract
We use ultra-high-speed video imaging to observe directly the earliest onset of prompt splashing when a drop impacts onto a smooth solid surface. We capture the start of the ejecta sheet travelling along the solid substrate and show how it breaks up immediately upon emergence from the underneath the drop. The resulting micro-droplets are much smaller and faster than previously reported and may have gone unobserved owing to their very small size and rapid ejection velocities, which approach 100 m s−1, for typical impact conditions of large rain drops. We propose a phenomenological mechanism which predicts the velocity and size distribution of the resulting microdroplets. We also observe azimuthal undulations which may help promote the earliest breakup of the ejecta. This instability occurs in the cusp in the free surface where the drop surface meets the radially ejected liquid sheet.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012
References
Thoroddsen et al. supplementary movie
Impact of a water drop viewed through a glass plate. Frame rate: 500,000 fps. Horizontal extent: 3.24 mm. Vertical extent: 3.51 mm. Impact velocity 3.8 m/s. Drop diameter 5.4 mm. We = 1070, Re = 20500.
Thoroddsen et al. supplementary movie
Impact of a water drop viewed through a glass plate. Frame rate: 500,000 fps. Horizontal extent: 3.24 mm. Vertical extent: 3.51 mm. Impact velocity 3.8 m/s. Drop diameter 5.4 mm. We = 1070, Re = 20500.
Thoroddsen et al. supplementary movie
Impact of a water drop viewed through a glass plate. Frame rate: 1,000,000 fps. Horizontal extent: 2.19 mm. Vertical extent: 1.96 mm. Impact velocity 4.8 m/s. Drop diameter 5.5 mm. We = 1740, Re = 26400.
Thoroddsen et al. supplementary movie
Impact of a water drop viewed through a glass plate. Frame rate: 1,000,000 fps. Horizontal extent: 2.19 mm. Vertical extent: 1.96 mm. Impact velocity 4.8 m/s. Drop diameter 5.5 mm. We = 1740, Re = 26400.
Thoroddsen et al. supplementary movie
Impact of a water drop viewed through a glass plate. Frame rate: 250,000 fps. Horizontal extent: 3.68 mm. Vertical extent: 4.50 mm. Impact velocity 5.4 m/s. Drop diameter 6.2 mm. We = 2480, Re = 33500.
Thoroddsen et al. supplementary movie
Impact of a water drop viewed through a glass plate. Frame rate: 250,000 fps. Horizontal extent: 3.68 mm. Vertical extent: 4.50 mm. Impact velocity 5.4 m/s. Drop diameter 6.2 mm. We = 2480, Re = 33500.
Thoroddsen et al. supplementary movie
Impact of a water drop viewed through a glass plate. Frame rate: 250,000 fps. Horizontal extent: 5.12 mm. Vertical extent: 5.62 mm. Impact velocity 5.4 m/s. Drop diameter 6.2 mm. We = 2480, Re = 33500
Thoroddsen et al. supplementary movie
Impact of a water drop viewed through a glass plate. Frame rate: 250,000 fps. Horizontal extent: 5.12 mm. Vertical extent: 5.62 mm. Impact velocity 5.4 m/s. Drop diameter 6.2 mm. We = 2480, Re = 33500
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