Pinch-off of a stretching viscous filament and drop transport

Abstract

This study is focused on the stretching and breakup of a Newtonian liquid bridge between two parallel plates, one of which moves with a constant acceleration. The experimental device is designed to achieve high acceleration (up to 200 m s-2) with high precision. The shape evolution of the liquid bridge and its pinch-off are captured using a high-speed video system. At high enough acceleration the evolution of the midpoint diameter of the bridge is universal; it depends neither on the acceleration nor on the liquid viscosity. Moreover, at high acceleration rates even the breakup time does not depend on the acceleration, but is determined solely by the liquid viscosity. A model is proposed which predicts the instant of the liquid bridge pinch-off. Finally, the volumes of the residual liquid on both fixed and moving plates (which do not include the total volume of the residual secondary drops) is measured. It is shown that the volume on the fixed plate remains almost constant, the volume on the accelerating plate reduces as the acceleration increases.