2019/06/12 by Xi Xia, Xia, Xi, Chengming He +3
Engineering · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer #Fluid Dynamics and Mixing #Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1906.04970
openalex publication_date 2019/06/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This letter presents a theory on the coalescence of two spherical liquid droplets that are initially stationary. The evolution of the radius of a liquid neck formed upon coalescence was formulated as an initial value problem and then solved to yield an exact solution without free parameters, with its two asymptotic approximations reproducing the well-known scaling relations in the viscous and inertial regimes. The viscous-to-inertial crossover observed by Paulsen et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 114501 (2011)] is also recovered by the theory, rendering the collapse of data of different viscosities onto a single curve.