We experimentally investigate the splashing mechanism of a millimeter-sized ethanol drop impinging on a structured solid surface, comprised of micro-pillars, through side-view and top-view high speed imaging. By increasing the impact velocity we can tune the impact outcome from a gentle deposition to a violent splash, at which tiny droplets are emitted as the liquid sheet spreads laterally. We measure the splashing threshold for different micropatterns and find that the arrangement of the pillars significantly affects the splashing outcome. In particular, directional splashing in direction in which air flow through pattern is possible. Our top-view observations of impact dynamics reveal that an trapped air is responsible for the splashing. Indeed by lowering the pressure of the surrounding air we show that we can suppress the splashing in the explored parameter regime.

Point pattern sets arise in many different areas of physical, biological, and applied research, representing many random realizations of underlying pattern formation mechanisms. These pattern sets can be heterogeneous with respect to underlying spatial processes, which may not be visually distiguishable. This heterogeneity can be elucidated by looking at statistical measures of the patterns sets and using these measures to divide the pattern set into distinct groups representing like spatial processes. We introduce here a numerical procedure for sorting point pattern sets into spatially homogenous groups using Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA) applied to the approximated Minkowski functionals of each pattern. We demonstrate that this procedure correctly sorts pattern sets into similar groups both when the patterns are drawn from similar processes and when the 2nd-order characteristics of the pattern are identical. We highlight this routine for distinguishing the molecular patterning of fluorescently labeled cell membrane proteins, a subject of much interest in studies investigating complex spatial signaling patterns involved in the human immune response.

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