At impact of a liquid drop on a solid surface an air bubble can be entrapped. Here we show that two competing effects minimize the (relative) size of this entrained air bubble: For large drop impact velocity and large droplets the inertia of the liquid flattens the entrained bubble, whereas for small impact velocity and small droplets capillary forces minimize the entrained bubble. However, we demonstrate experimentally, theoretically, and numerically that in between there is an optimum, leading to maximal air bubble entrapment. Our results have a strong bearing on various applications in printing technology, microelectronics, immersion lithography, diagnostics, or agriculture.The impact of liquid droplets on surfaces is omnipresent in nature and technology, ranging from falling raindrops to applications in agriculture and inkjet printing. The crucial question often is: How well does the liquid wet a surface? The traditional view is that it is the surface tension which gives a quantitative answer. However, it has been shown recently that an air bubble can be entrapped under a liquid drop as it impacts on the surface [1-6]. Also Xu et al. [7,8] revealed the important role of the surrounding air on the impact dynamics, including a possible splash formation. The mechanism works as follows [3][4][5][6]: The air between the falling drop and the surface is strongly squeezed, leading to a pressure buildup in the air under the drop. The enhanced pressure results in a dimple formation in the droplet and eventually to the entrapment of an air bubble (figure 1a). The very simple question we ask and answer in this paper is: For which impact velocity is the entrapped bubble maximal?Our experimental setup is shown in figure 1b and is similar to that of ref.[9] where it is described in detail. An ethanol drop impacts on a smooth glass surface after detaching from a needle, or for velocities smaller than 0.32 m/s, after moving the needle downwards using a linear translation stage. A high-speed side view recording is used to measure the drop diameter and velocity. A synchronized bottom view recording by a high-speed color camera is used to measure the deformed shape of the liquid drop. Colored interference patterns are created by high-intensity coaxial white light, which reflects from both the glass surface and the bottom of the droplet. Using a color-matching approach in combination with known reference surfaces, the complete air thickness profile can be extracted (shown in figure 1c). For experiments done at larger impact velocities (U > 0.76 m/s), we use a pulse of diffused laser light triggered by an optical switch. The thickness of the air film at the rim is assumed to be zero, and the complete air thickness profile can then be obtained from the monochromatic fringe pattern. From these measurements we can determine the dimple height, H d , and the volume of the entrained bubble, V b , at the very moment of impact. This moment is defined by the first wetting of the surface, i.e., the moment when the concentric symmetry of th...

We show how the deposition of laser energy induces propulsion and strong deformation of an absorbing liquid body. Combining high speed with stroboscopic imaging, we observe that a millimeter-sized dyed water drop hit by a millijoule nanosecond laser pulse propels forward at several meters per second and deforms until it eventually fragments. The drop motion results from the recoil momentum imparted at the drop surface by water vaporization. We measure the propulsion speed and the time-deformation law of the drop, complemented by boundary-integral simulations. The drop propulsion and shaping are explained in terms of the laser-pulse energy, the drop size, and the liquid properties. These findings are, for instance, crucial for the generation of extreme ultraviolet light in nanolithography machines.

A free-falling absorbing liquid drop hit by a nanosecond laser-pulse experiences a strong recoil-pressure kick. As a consequence, the drop propels forward and deforms into a thin sheet which eventually fragments. We study how the drop deformation depends on the pulse shape and drop properties. We first derive the velocity field inside the drop on the timescale of the pressure pulse, when the drop is still spherical. This yields the kinetic-energy partition inside the drop, which precisely measures the deformation rate with respect to the propulsion rate, before surface tension comes into play. On the timescale where surface tension is important the drop has evolved into a thin sheet. Its expansion dynamics is described with a slender-slope model, which uses the impulsive energy-partition as an initial condition. Completed with boundary integral simulations, this two-stage model explains the entire drop dynamics and its dependance on the pulse shape: for a given propulsion, a tightly focused pulse results in a thin curved sheet which maximizes the lateral expansion, while a uniform illumination yields a smaller expansion but a flat symmetric sheet, in good agreement with experimental observations. IntroductionA laser pulse interacting with an absorbing liquid body can deposit a finite amount of energy, concentrated both in time and space, which eventually triggers a dramatic hydrodynamic response. Focused nanosecond pulses have for instance been used to induce cavitation in liquids confined in capillary tubes (Vogel et al. 1996;Sun et al. 2009;Tagawa et al. 2012), or jetting and spraying in sessile drops (Thoroddsen et al. 2009). These situations involving a liquid close to a wall result in localized flows. By contrast, we consider here the situation of a mobile liquid body: the impact of a nanosecond laser pulse onto an absorbing unconfined liquid drop, which, as first described by Klein et al. (2015), has a global hydrodynamic response to the pulse: the drop propels forward at a speed of several meters per second, strongly deforms and eventually fragments (see Fig. 1). This dynamics is similar to that following a mechanical impact such as on a solid substrate or a pillar, which has been studied thoroughly (see e.g. Clanet et al. 2004;Yarin 2006;Villermaux & Bossa 2011;Kolinski et al. 2012;Riboux & Gordillo 2014;Josserand & Thoroddsen 2016), including a few studies on the fragmentation of the drop (Villermaux 2007;Xu et al. 2007;Villermaux & Bossa 2009, 2011Riboux & Gordillo 2014). A laser proves to be an adequate tool to vary the extension of the impact without arXiv:1512.02415v1 [physics.flu-dyn] 8 Dec 2015

We investigate the spontaneous oscillations of drops levitated above an air cushion, eventually inducing a breaking of axisymmetry and the appearance of "star drops". This is strongly reminiscent of the Leidenfrost stars that are observed for drops floating above a hot substrate. The key advantage of this work is that we inject the airflow at a constant rate below the drop, thus eliminating thermal effects and allowing for a better control of the flow rate. We perform experiments with drops of different viscosities and observe stable states, oscillations, and chimney instabilities. We find that for a given drop size the instability appears above a critical flow rate, where the latter is largest for small drops. All these observations are reproduced by numerical simulations, where we treat the drop using potential flow and the gas as a viscous lubrication layer. Qualitatively, the onset of instability agrees with the experimental results, although the typical flow rates are too large by a factor 10. Our results demonstrate that thermal effects are not important for the formation of star drops and strongly suggest a purely hydrodynamic mechanism for the formation of Leidenfrost stars.

When a millimetre-sized liquid drop approaches a deep liquid pool, both the interface of the drop and the pool deform before the drop touches the pool. The build-up of air pressure prior to coalescence is responsible for this deformation. Due to this deformation, air can be entrained at the bottom of the drop during the impact. We quantify the amount of entrained air numerically, using the boundary integral method for potential flow for the drop and the pool, coupled to viscous lubrication theory for the air film that has to be squeezed out during impact. We compare our results with various experimental data and find excellent agreement for the amount of air that is entrapped during impact onto a pool. Next, the impact of a rigid sphere onto a pool is numerically investigated and the air that is entrapped in this case also matches with available experimental data. In both cases of drop and sphere impact onto a pool the numerical air bubble volume V b is found to be in agreement with the theoretical scaling V b /V drop/sphere ∼ St −4/3 , where St is the Stokes number. This is the same scaling as has been found for drop impact onto a solid surface in previous research. This implies a universal mechanism for air entrainment for these different impact scenarios, which has been suggested in recent experimental work, but is now further elucidated with numerical results.

A train of high-speed microdrops impacting on a liquid pool can create a very deep and narrow cavity, reaching depths more than 1000 times the size of the individual drops. The impact of such a droplet train is studied numerically using boundary integral simulations. In these simulations, we solve the potential flow in the pool and in the impacting drops, taking into account the influence of liquid inertia, gravity and surface tension. We show that for microdrops the cavity shape and maximum depth primarily depend on the balance of inertia and surface tension and discuss how these are influenced by the spacing between the drops in the train. Finally, we derive simple scaling laws for the cavity depth and width.

A tiny air bubble can be entrapped at the bottom of a solid sphere that impacts onto a liquid pool. The bubble forms due to the deformation of the liquid surface by a local pressure buildup inside the surrounding gas, as also observed during the impact of a liquid drop on a solid wall. Here we perform a perturbation analysis to quantitatively predict the initial deformations of the free surface of the liquid pool as it is approached by a solid sphere. We study the natural limits where the gas can be treated as a viscous fluid (Stokes flow) or as an inviscid fluid (potential flow). For both cases we derive the spatio-temporal evolution of the pool surface, and recover some of the recently proposed scaling laws for bubble entrapment. When inserting typical experimental values for the impact parameters, we find that the bubble volume is mainly determined by the effect of gas viscosity.

The early stages (<180 min) of cavitation erosion of silicon surfaces were studied for three different crystallographic orientations. We introduce a quantity defined as the ratio of the relative eroded area to the number of pits, a p , to evaluate the evolution of erosion among the different substrates used. Different erosion evolution was observed for (100), (110), and (111) silicon surfaces when exposed to cavitation bubbles generated by an ultrasound signal of 191 kHz. (100) silicon substrates showed the most erosion damage, with an eroded area 2.5 times higher than the other two crystallographic orientation substrates after 180 min sonication. An apparent incubation period of 50 min was measured. The number of erosion pits increased monotonically for (110) and (111), but for (100) no increase was detected after 120 min. The collapse of a spherical bubble was simulated using an axisymmetry boundary integral method. The calculated velocity of the jet from the collapsing bubble was used to estimate the pressure P that is induced by the jet upon impact on the silicon substrate. V C 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.