Universal Thinning of Liquid Filaments under Dominant Surface Forces

Theory and numerical simulations of the thinning of liquid threads at high superficial concentration of surfactants suggest the existence of an asymptotic regime where surface tension balances surface viscous stresses, leading to an exponential thinning with an e-fold time F(Theta)(3mus + kappas)/sigma, where mus and kappas are the surface shear and dilatational viscosity coefficients, sigma is the interfacial tension, Theta = kappas/mus, and F(Theta) is a universal function. The potential use of this phenomenon to measure the surface viscosity coefficients is discussed.

drop breakup; drops and bubbles; instability of free-surface flows; liquid bridges; drop and bubble phenomena; multiphase flows; viscosity

Universal Thinning of Liquid Filaments under Dominant Surface Forces Articles