Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in an ultrathin air film causes drop splashing on smooth surfaces

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America - Tập 112 Số 11 - Trang 3280-3284 - 2015
Yuan Liu1, Peng Tan1,2, Lei Xu1
1aDepartment of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; and
2bState Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China

Tóm tắt

Significance Liquid drops always splash when they impact smooth surfaces with high enough speeds. This common phenomenon is crucial in many important fields such as agriculture, printing, surface coating, and spray cooling. However, despite extensive studies over one century, the origin of splashing remains a big mystery. Combining experiment with model, we show that the air trapped under the liquid drop forms a special flow within a nanoscale gap. This airflow produces a stress 10 times stronger than the common airflow and generates small Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities that trigger splash. Our model agrees quantitatively with the experimental verifications and brings a fundamental understanding to the general phenomenon of drop splashing on smooth surfaces.

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Tài liệu tham khảo

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Tập 112 Số 11

3280-3284

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