Condensation-induced jumping water drops.

Water droplets can jump during vapor condensation on solid benzene near its melting point. This phenomenon, which can be viewed as a kind of micro scale steam engine, is studied experimentally and numerically. The latent heat of condensation transferred at the drop three phase contact line melts the substrate during a time proportional to R (the drop radius). The wetting conditions change and a spontaneous jump of the drop results in random direction over length approximately 1.5R , a phenomenon that increases the coalescence events and accelerates the growth. Once properly rescaled by the jump length scale, the growth dynamics is, however, similar to that on a solid surface.