Drop breakup in shear flow
Abstract
We report a study on the deformation and breakup of viscous drops in an impulsively-started shear flow. We used adaptive boundary-integral simulations and video-microscopy experiments. We find that the size of droplets produced by breakup events scales with the maximum stable drop size in the flow, and the parent drop volume determines the number, but not the size, of droplets produced. The drop size distribution resulting from breakup events in a dilute sheared emulsion is roughly tri-modal, with one drop size largely dominant, and is independent of the poly-dispersity of the emulsion before shear is applied. We also demonstrate the existence of an optimal shear rate corresponding to minimum breakup time.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- November 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003APS..DFD.KF004C