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Breakup of liquid filaments.


Type

Article

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Authors

Castrejón-Pita, Alfonso A 
Castrejón-Pita, JR 
Hutchings, IM 

Abstract

Whether a thin filament of liquid separates into two or more droplets or eventually condenses lengthwise to form a single larger drop depends on the liquid's density, viscosity, and surface tension and on the initial dimensions of the filament. Surface tension drives two competing processes, pinching-off and shortening, and the relative time scales of these, controlled by the balance between capillary and viscous forces, determine the final outcome. Here we provide experimental evidence for the conditions under which a liquid filament will break up into drops, in terms of a wide range of two dimensionless quantities: the aspect ratio of the filament and the Ohnesorge number. Filaments which do not break up into multiple droplets demand a high liquid viscosity or a small aspect ratio.

Description

Keywords

FREE-SURFACE FLOWS, DYNAMICS, TEARS

Journal Title

Phys Rev Lett

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0031-9007
1079-7114

Volume Title

Publisher

American Physical Society (APS)
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/G029458/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/H018913/1)
This work was supported by EPSRC (RG53364 and RG55605)