The physical products of a splashing water drop
Abstract
The photographic emulsion technique of Koenig and Spyers-Duran (1961) and a method of calibration using a carbon layer surface involving droplets of various sizes were used to study the physical products of splashing water drops. For each target the number, size, and location of the secondary droplets produced by 20 successive and identical splashing events was measured from the photographic paper placed at two detecting sites. These quantities were then analyzed in terms of the following input parameters: size of the impacting drop, impact velocity, curvature of target, target roughness, and thickness of the liquid layer covering the target surface. It is found that the splash-product diameters are distributed according to a log-normal function, and that the number of droplets produced by a splash increases with surface roughness, impact velocity, and drop size but decreases with increasing liquid film thickness and with a reduction in surface tension of the drop. Marked differences between the splashing of water drops on dry solid surfaces and splashing into deep liquid are discussed.
- Publication:
-
Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan
- Pub Date:
- October 1977
- DOI:
- 10.2151/jmsj1965.55.5_518
- Bibcode:
- 1977JMeSJ..55..518S
- Keywords:
-
- Drops (Liquids);
- Impact Tests;
- Particle Size Distribution;
- Rain Impact Damage;
- Splashing;
- Water Erosion;
- Cloud Physics;
- Interfacial Tension;
- Photographic Measurement;
- Surface Roughness;
- Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer