Inertial coalescence of droplets on a partially wetting substrate

We consider the growth rate of the height of the connecting bridge in rapid surface-tension-driven coalescence of two identical droplets attached on a partially wetting substrate. For a wide range of contact angle values, the height of the bridge grows with time following a power law with a universa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of fluids (1994) 2013-01, Vol.25 (10), p.1-7, 101701
Main Authors: Sui, Yi, Maglio, Marco, Spelt, Peter DM, Legendre, Dominique, Ding, Hang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coalescence
Coalescing
Contact angle
Droplets
Engineering Sciences
Exponents
Fluid mechanics
Fluids mechanics
Mathematical models
Mechanics
Physics
Thresholds
Wetting
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Summary:We consider the growth rate of the height of the connecting bridge in rapid surface-tension-driven coalescence of two identical droplets attached on a partially wetting substrate. For a wide range of contact angle values, the height of the bridge grows with time following a power law with a universal exponent of 2/3, up to a threshold time, beyond which a 1/2 exponent results, that is known for coalescence of freely-suspended droplets. In a narrow range of contact angle values close to 90 degree , this threshold time rapidly vanishes and a 1/2 exponent results for a 90 degree contact angle. The argument is confirmed by three-dimensional numerical simulations based on a diffuse interface method with adaptive mesh refinement and a volume-of-fluid method.
ISSN:1070-6631
0031-9171
1089-7666
DOI:10.1063/1.4824108