Fiber-based coalescers are widely used to accumulate droplets from aerosols and emulsions, where the accumulated droplets are typically removed by gravity or shear. This Letter reports self-propelled removal of drops from a hydrophobic fiber, where the surface energy released upon drop coalescence overcomes the drop-fiber adhesion, producing spontaneous departure that would not occur on a flat ...

Using an electrical method and high-speed imaging, we probe drop coalescence down to 10 ns after the drops touch. By varying the liquid viscosity over two decades, we conclude that, at a sufficiently low approach velocity where deformation is not present, the drops coalesce with an unexpectedly late crossover time between a regime dominated by viscous and one dominated by inertial effects. We a...

During dropwise condensation from vapor onto a cooled surface, distributions of drops evolve by nucleation, growth, and coalescence. Drop surface coverage dictates the heat transfer characteristics and depends on both drop size and number of drops present on the surface at any given time. Thus, manipulating drop distributions is crucial to maximizing heat transfer. On earth, manipulation is ach...

The results of a lattice Boltzmann simulation for collisions between two liquid drops in an immiscible liquid in a linear Stokes flow will be presented. The results will be compared with existing experimental results and asymptotic solutions. The mixing of a contaminant that is initially contained in one of the drops will also be discussed and compared with particle tracking simulations. r 2005...

We report a comprehensive study of the flow of liquid triggered by injecting a droplet into a liquid foam microchannel, also called a Plateau border. This drop-injected experiment reveals an intricate dynamics for the liquid redistribution, with two contrasting regimes observed, ruled either by inertia or viscosity. We devoted a previous study [A. Cohen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 218303 (201...

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the wetting and coalescence of liquid Al and Pb drops on four carbon-based substrates. We highlight the importance of the microstructure and surface topography of substrates in the coalescence process. Our results show that the effect of substrate on coalescence is achieved by changing the wettability of the Pb metal. Additionally, we...

This Letter reports experimental results on the coalescence of two liquid drops driven by surface tension. Using a high speed imaging system, we studied the early-time evolution of the liquid bridge that is formed upon the initial contact of two liquid drops in air. Experimental results confirmed the scaling law that was proposed by Eggers et al. based on a simple and yet elegant physical argum...

[1] An approximate analytical expression for the rate of loss of cloud droplets by coalescence in warm clouds is derived from the stochastic collection equation (SCE). The expression depends only upon precipitation rate and cloud droplet concentration and compares well with estimated loss rates derived using observed cloud drop size distributions and the complete collection kernel. Loss rates a...

A systematic study of collisions between surfactant-free organic drops in aqueous electrolyte solutions reveals the threshold at which continuum models provide a complete description of thin-film interactions. For collision velocities above ~1 μm/s, continuum models of hydrodynamics and surface forces provide a complete description of the interaction, despite the absence of surfactant. This inc...

Population balances represent an effective framework for the analysis of rate processes in dispersed phase systems. Mainly, they are able to account for the dynamics of the dispersed phase because of particle breakup and agglomeration while concurrently accounting for the rate processes in single particles. The effectiveness of this framework depends on whether particle phenomena (such as break...