Double Contact During Drop Impact on a Solid Under Reduced Air Pressure

Stress distribution and surface shock wave of drop impact

Drop impact causes severe surface erosion, dictating many important natural, environmental and engineering processes and calling for substantial prevention and preservation efforts. Nevertheless, despite extensive studies on the kinematic features of impacting drops over the last two decades, the dynamic process that leads to the drop-impact erosion is still far from clear. Here, we develop a method of high-speed stress microscopy, which measures the key dynamic properties of drop impact responsible for erosion, i.e., the shear stress and pressure distributions of impacting drops, with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolutions. Our experiments reveal the fast propagation of self-similar noncentral stress maxima underneath impacting drops and quantify the shear force on impacted substrates. Moreover, we examine the deformation of elastic substrates under impact and uncover impact-induced surface shock waves. Our study opens the door for quantitative measurements of the impact stress of liquid drops and sheds light on the origin of low-speed drop-impact erosion.

The dynamic process behind the low-speed drop-impact erosion remains challenging to understand. Cheng et al. develop a method of high-speed microscopy, revealing the fast propagation of self-similar stress maxima underneath impacting drops and the formation of surface waves on impacted substrates.

Cavitation upon low-speed solid-liquid impact

When a solid object impacts on the surface of a liquid, extremely high pressure develops at the site of contact. Von Karman's study of this classical physics problem showed that the pressure on the bottom surface of the impacting body approaches infinity for flat impacts. Yet, in contrast to the high pressures found from experience and in previous studies, we show that a flat-bottomed cylinder impacting a pool of liquid can decrease the local pressure sufficiently to cavitate the liquid. Cavitation occurs because the liquid is slightly compressible and impact creates large pressure waves that reflect from the free surface to form negative pressure regions. We find that an impact velocity as low as ~3 m/s suffices to cavitate the liquid and propose a new cavitation number to predict cavitation onset in low-speed solid-liquid impact-scenarios. These findings imply that localized cavitation could occur in impacts such as boat slamming, cliff jumping, and ocean landing of spacecraft.

Mediation of lubricated air films using spatially periodic dielectrophoretic effect

A stone thrown in a lake captures air as it collides with water and sinks; likewise a rain drop falling on a flat surface traps air bubbles underneath and creates a spectacular splash. These natural occurrences, from bubble entrapment to liquid ejection, happen as air fails to escape from the closing gap between liquid and solid surfaces. Trapping of air is devastating for casting, coating, painting, and printing industries, or those intolerant of water entry noise. Attempts to eliminate the interfering air rely on either reducing the ambient pressure or modifying the solid surfaces. The former approach is inflexible in its implementation, while the latter one is inherently limited by the wetting speed of liquid or the draining capacity of air passages created on the solid. Here, we present a “divide and conquer” approach to split the thin air gap into tunnels and subsequently squeeze air out from the tunnels against its viscous resistance using spatially periodic dielectrophoretic force. We confirm the working principles by demonstrating suppression of both bubble entrapment and splash upon impacts of droplets on solid surfaces.

The violent splash of a droplet caused by residual air pockets trapped during impact on a solid surface appears inevitable. Vo and Tran show how to vent the drop on short notice for a smooth touchdown, harnessing dielectrophoretic forces to create dynamic drainage channels.

Droplet impact on pillar-arrayed non-wetting surfaces

Droplet impact on pillar-arrayed polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces with different solid fractions was studied. The lower and upper limits of Weber number, We, for complete rebound of impacting droplets decreased with decreasing solid fractions. Gaps were visible during the spreading and retraction processes of bouncing droplets on the surface with a solid fraction of 0.06 while no gaps were observed during the retraction process when We was greater than its upper limit, indicating that there existed a transition from the Cassie-Baxter wetting state to the Wenzel wetting state. Therefore, a novel model accounting for the penetration of a liquid into the cavities between the pillars was developed to predict the upper limit of the impact velocity of bouncing droplets. At high We, partial rebound was observed for surfaces with solid fractions of 0.50 and 0.20 while a sticky state was observed for the surface with a solid fraction of 0.06. Moreover, surface roughness has a great influence on the contact time of bouncing droplets. Besides, the maximum spreading parameter was found to follow a scaling law of We^1/4.

The role of drop shape in impact and splash

The impact and splash of liquid drops on solid substrates are ubiquitous in many important fields. However, previous studies have mainly focused on spherical drops while the non-spherical situations, such as raindrops, charged drops, oscillating drops, and drops affected by electromagnetic field, remain largely unexplored. Using ferrofluid, we realize various drop shapes and illustrate the fundamental role of shape in impact and splash. Experiments show that different drop shapes produce large variations in spreading dynamics, splash onset, and splash amount. However, underlying all these variations we discover universal mechanisms across various drop shapes: the impact dynamics is governed by the superellipse model, the splash onset is triggered by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and the amount of splash is determined by the energy dissipation before liquid taking off. Our study generalizes the drop impact research beyond the spherical geometry, and reveals the potential of using drop shape to control impact and splash.

The dynamics of droplet impact and splash is important in many applications, yet its analysis involves difficult intertwined aspects. Here Liu et al. make shape parametrically accessible to experiment, with ferrofluidic drops passing a magnetic field in a defined way.

Bubble dynamics in thin liquid films and breakup at drop impact

A liquid drop impacting on a smooth surface heated above the boiling point and below the Leidenfrost temperature spreads over the surface forming a thin liquid film. We observed bubble nuclei originating at the first contact of a liquid with a heated sapphire surface, and the formation of a thin liquid film with one layer of microbubbles. In the present paper, we describe in detail the bubble dynamics for the substrate temperature ranging from 130 to 170 °C. The thickness of the liquid film is estimated to vary within the range from 40 to 80 μm at We = 76 and an advancing contact angle of 76°. We have detected how bubbles break the film, which is followed by dry patch propagation and sessile droplet formation, and elucidated the mechanism of spontaneous liquid film breakup. The bubble coalescence and waves induced by the rollback flow from the lamella periphery or by reversible bubble bursting are the reason for irreversible hole formation.

Droplet impacts onto soft solids entrap more air

We investigate the effects of surface stiffness on the air cushioning at the bottom of a liquid drop impacting onto a soft solid and the resulting entrapment of a central bubble. This was achieved using ultra-high-speed interferometry at 5 million frames per second and spatial resolution of 1.05 μm per pixel. The soft solid delays the effects of gas compressibility resulting in much larger air discs than corresponding impacts onto rigid surfaces. Using an effective impact velocity equal to half of the actual impact velocity brings the soft solid scaling behavior better in line with rigid substrate scaling. We also observe extended gliding of the drop as it initially avoids contact with the surface spreading over a thin layer of air and investigate the threshold velocity for the transition from gliding to ring contact. Such extended gliding layers have previously been seen for high-viscosity drop impacts, but not for low-viscosity liquids at the impact velocities used herein.

Air layer during the impact of droplets on heated substrates

When a droplet impacts on a substrate, the air underneath the droplet is compressed to form an air layer of a dimple shape before the droplet wets the substrate. This air layer is important to the impact dynamics, and many studies have been performed to investigate the air layer during the impact process on unheated substrates. In this experimental study of the air layer, our results reveal that the air layer is profoundly affected by the substrate temperature, even if the substrate temperature is below the boiling point of the droplet fluid. We use high-speed imaging and color interferometry to measure the air layer with nanometer accuracy. The results show that the thickness of the air layer increases with increasing the substrate temperature. Compared with the impact of the droplet on the unheated substrate, the average thickness of the air layer on the heated substrate at 70 °C is about 12% thicker. This will affect the subsequent bubble entrapment, which is an important feature of the impact dynamics. A simplified model is proposed to consider the heat transfer in the air layer. Additionally, the effects of the Weber number, the fluid viscosity, and the size of the droplet on the air layer are also analyzed. This study sheds light on controlling the impact dynamics of droplets by adjusting the substrate temperature.

Bouncing off the Walls: The Influence of Gas-Kinetic and van der Waals Effects in Drop Impact

A model is developed for liquid drop impact on a solid surface that captures the thin film gas flow beneath the drop, even when the film's thickness is below the mean free path in the gas so that gas kinetic effects (GKE) are important. Simulation results agree with experiments, with the impact speed threshold between bouncing and wetting reproduced to within 5%, while a model without GKE overpredicts this value by at least 50%. To isolate GKE, the pressure dependence of the threshold is mapped and provides experimentally verifiable predictions. There are two principal modes of contact leading to wetting and both are associated with a van der Waals driven instability of the film.

Weakly charged droplets fundamentally change impact dynamics on flat surfaces

Electric charges are often found in naturally or artificially formed droplets, such as raindrops and those generated by Kelvin's water dropper. In contrast to the impact of neutral droplets on a flat solid surface upon which a thin convex lens shape layer of the gas film is typically formed, we show that the delicate gas thin film can be fundamentally altered for even weakly charged droplets. As the charge level is raised above a critical level of ∼1% of the Rayleigh limit for representative impact conditions, the Maxwell stress overcomes the gas pressure buildup to deform the droplet bottom surface. A conical liquid tip forms and pierces through the gas film, leading to a circular contact line moving outwards that does not trap any gas. The critical charge level only depends on the capillary number based on the gas viscosity. This finding applies to common liquids and molten alloy droplets, providing new insights into a range of applications such as mitigating pinhole defects in additive manufacturing.

Droplet Splashing on an Inclined Surface

Oblique droplet impacts onto a smooth surface at various inclination angles and at different ambient gas pressures were investigated using high-speed photography. It was found that the droplet splash can be entirely suppressed either by increasing the inclination angle or by reducing the ambient pressure. Variations of the threshold angle required for the splash suppression as a function of the impact velocity were determined, as well as the threshold pressure as a function of the inclination angle and the impact velocity. The threshold pressure increases monotonically as the inclination angle increases for small enough impact velocities but varies in a nonmonotonic manner for high enough impact velocities. Modifications of the existing splash model permit the theoretical determination of the splash threshold conditions that agree well with the experimental observations. It is shown that it is the velocity of the lamella tip that determines the splash onset.

The air entrapment under a drop impacting on a nano-rough surface

We study the impact of drops onto a flat surface with a nano-particle-based superhydrophobic coating, focusing on the earliest contact using 200 ns time-resolution. A central air-disc is entrapped when the drop impacts the surface, and when the roughness is appropriately accounted for, the height and radial extent of the air-disc follow the scaling laws established for impacts onto smooth surfaces. The roughness also modifies the first contact of the drop around the central air-disc, producing a thick band of micro-bubbles. The initial bubbles within this band coalesce and grow in size. We also infer the presence of an air-film residing inside the microstructure, at radial distances outside the central air-disc. This is manifest by the sudden appearance of microbubbles within a few microseconds after impact. The central air-disc remains pinned on the roughness, unless it is chemically altered to make it superhydrophilic.

Contact Line Instability Caused by Air Rim Formation under Nonsplashing Droplets

Drop impact is fundamental to various natural and industrial processes such as rain-induced soil erosion and spray-coating technologies. The recent discovery of the role of air entrainment between the droplet and the impacting surface has produced numerous works, uncovering the unique physics that correlates the air film dynamics with the drop impact outcomes. In this study, we focus on the post-failure air entrainment dynamics for We numbers well below the splash threshold under different ambient pressures and elucidate the interfacial instabilities formed by air entrainment at the wetting front of impacting droplets on perfectly smooth, viscous films of constant thickness. A high-speed total internal reflection microscopy technique accounting for the Fresnel reflection at the drop-air interface allows for in situ measurements of an entrained air rim at the wetting front. The presence of an air rim is found to be a prerequisite to the interfacial instability which is formed when the capillary pressure in the vicinity of the contact line can no longer balance the increasing gas pressure near the wetting front. A critical capillary number for the air rim formation is experimentally identified above which the wetting front becomes unstable where this critical capillary number inversely scales with the ambient pressure. The contact line instabilities at relatively low We numbers ( We ∼ O(10)) observed in this study provide insight into the conventional understanding of hydrodynamic instabilities under drop impact which usually require We ≫ 10.