Stretching and rupture of a viscous liquid bridge between two spherical particles

Abstract

In this paper, the stretching and rupture of liquid bridge are studied by experiment and numerical simulation. In the experiment, the relationship between the critical rupture distance of the liquid bridge and four factors, including volume of liquid bridge, particle initial distance, liquid bridge stretching velocity and liquid bridge viscosity, is quantitatively studied. It is found that the liquid bridge critical rupture distance can be described by the modified Bond number, where the critical distance shows a maximum value when this number is about 0.6. As the Capillary number of liquid bridge increases, the effect of the liquid bridge stretching velocity on the critical rupture distance increases, while the influence of the liquid bridge viscosity on the critical rupture distance increases with the volume of liquid bridge. Mesh overset is used to describe the profile change of liquid bridge, and based on the simulation the pressure field is applied in calculating the capillary fore in the liquid bridge. The rupture energy of liquid bridge can be mainly related with the Capillary number, showing two different functions when Ca = 0.01 is the turning point. Finally, two empirical formulas are proposed to predict the rupture energy of liquid bridge.