TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hack, Michiel A.
AU  - Tewes, Walter
AU  - Xie, Qingguang
AU  - Datt, Charu
AU  - Harth, Kirsten
AU  - Harting, Jens
AU  - Snoeijer, Jacco H.
TI  - Self-Similar Liquid Lens Coalescence
JO  - Physical review letters
VL  - 124
IS  - 19
SN  - 0031-9007
CY  - College Park, Md.
PB  - APS
M1  - FZJ-2020-01719
SP  - 194502 –
PY  - 2020
AB  - A basic feature of liquid drops is that they can merge upon contact to form a larger drop. In spite of its importance to various applications, drop coalescence on pre-wetted substrates has received little attention. Here, we experimentally and theoretically reveal the dynamics of drop coalescence on a thick layer of a low-viscosity liquid. It is shown that these so-called 'liquid lenses' merge by the self-similar vertical growth of a bridge connecting the two lenses. Using a slender analysis, we derive similarity solutions corresponding to the viscous and inertial limits. Excellent agreement is found with the experiments without any adjustable parameters, capturing both the spatial and temporal structure of the flow during coalescence. Finally, we consider the crossover between the two regimes and show that all data of different lens viscosities collapse on a single curve capturing the full range of the coalescence dynamics.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:32469577
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000532663000004
DO  - DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.194502
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/874952
ER  -