Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T01:42:04.688Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The contraction of liquid filaments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

R. M. S. M. Schulkes
Affiliation:
Norsk Hydro a.s., Research Centre Porsgrunn, N-3901 Porsgrunn, Norway

Abstract

In this paper the evolution of a free liquid filament of arbitrary viscosity, contracting under the action of surface tension forces, is studied by numerical means. A finite- element discretization procedure is used to obtain approximate solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations. A Lagrangian approach is employed to deal with the large domain deformations which occur during the evolution of the filament. Typically we find that during the contraction a bulbous region forms at the end of the filament. The character of the evolution of the filament is found to be crucially dependent on the value of the Ohnesorge number Oh (a measure of viscous and surface tension forces). For large Ohnesorge numbers (Oh [Gt ] O(1)) it is found that the liquid filament remains stable during contraction, even when the initial length of the filament is much longer than the Rayleigh stability limit. The bulbous end becomes more localized with decreasing Ohnesorge number while at the same time a clear neck forms in front of the bulbous end. In addition we find that the region in which the pressure is minimum moves towards the neck. For sufficiently small Ohnesorge numbers (Oh [Lt ] O(0.01)) the filament becomes unstable with the radius of the neck decreasing and, eventually, the bulbous end breaking away from the filament.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1996 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramowuz, M. & Stegun, I. A. 1972 Handbook of Mathematical Functions. Dover.
Bauer, H. F. 1984 Natural damped frequencies of an infinitely long column of immiscible viscous fluids. Z. Angew. Math. Mech. 64, 475490.Google Scholar
Chen, T.-Y. & Tsamopoulos, J. 1993 Nonlinear dynamics of liquid bridges: theory. J. Fluid Mech. 255, 373409.Google Scholar
Cuvelier, C, Segal, A. & VanSteenhoven, A. A. 1986 Finite Element Methods and Navier-Stokes Equations. Reidel.
Goedde, E. F. & Yuen, M. C. 1970 Experiments on liquid jet instability. J. Fluid Mech. 40, 495511.Google Scholar
Hauser, E. A., Edgerton, H. E., Holt, B. M. & Cox, J. T. 1936 The application of the high-speed motion picture camera to research on the surface tension of liquids. J. Phys. Chem. 40, 973988.Google Scholar
Hirt, B. D. & Nichols, C. W. 1981 Volume of Fluid (VOF) method for the dynamics of free boundaries. J. Comput. Phys. 39, 201225.Google Scholar
Huerta, A. & Liu, W. K. 1988 Viscous flow with large free surface motion. Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engng 69, 277324.Google Scholar
Jiang, Y. J., Umemura, A. & Law, C. K. 1992 An experimental investigation on the collision behaviour of hydrocarbon droplets. J. Fluid Mech. 234, 171190.Google Scholar
Keller, J. B. 1983 Breaking of liquid films and liquid threads. Phys. Fluids 26, 34513453.Google Scholar
Keller, J. B., King, A. & Ting, L. 1995 Blob formation. Phys. Fluids 7, 226228.Google Scholar
Lafrance, P. 1975 Nonlinear breakup of a laminar liquid jet. Phys. Fluids 18, 428432.Google Scholar
Lamb, H. 1945 Hydrodynamics. Dover.
Lambert, J. D. 1991 Numerical Methods for Ordinary Differential Systems. Wiley.
Mansour, N. N. & Lundgren, T. S. 1990 Satellite formation in a capillary jet breakup. Phys. Fluids. 2, 11411144.Google Scholar
Peregrine, D. H., Shoker, G. & Symon, A. 1990 The bifurcation of liquid bridges. J. Fluid Mech. 212, 2539.Google Scholar
Ramaswamy, B., Kawahara, M. & Nakayama, T. 1986 Lagrangian finite-element method for the analysis of two dimensional sloshing problems. Intl J. Numer Meth. Engng 6, 659670.Google Scholar
Reid, W. H. 1960 The oscillations of a viscous liquid drop. Q. Appl. Maths 18, 8689.Google Scholar
Schulkes, R. M. S. M. 1994a The evolution of capillary fountains. J. Fluid Mech. 261, 223252.Google Scholar
Schulkes, R. M. S. M. 1994b The evolution and bifurcation of a pendant drop. J. Fluid Mech. 278, 83100.Google Scholar
Stone, H. A. 1994 Dynamics of drop deformation and breakup in viscous fluids. Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 26, 65102.Google Scholar
Stone, H. A., Bentley, B. J. & Leal, L. G. 1986 An experimental study of transient effects in the break up of viscous drops. J. Fluid Mech. 173, 131158.Google Scholar
Stone, H. A. & Leal, L. G. 1989 Relaxation and break up of an initially extended drop in an otherwise quiescent fluid. J. Fluid Mech. 198, 399427.Google Scholar
Taylor, G. I. 1934 The formation of emulsions in definable fields of flow. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A. 146, 501523.Google Scholar
Ting, L. & Keller, J. B. 1990 Slender jets and thin sheets with surface tension. SIAM J. Appl. Maths 50, 15331546.Google Scholar
Tsamopoulos, J. A. & Brown, R. A. 1983 Nonlinear oscillations of inviscid drops and bubbles. J. Fluid Mech. 127, 519537.Google Scholar
Zhang, X. & Basaran, O. A. 1995 An experimental study of drop formation. Phys. Fluids 7, 11841203.Google Scholar