IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v5y2014i1d10.1038_ncomms4182.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coalescence of bubbles and drops in an outer fluid

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph D. Paulsen

    (The James Franck and Enrico Fermi Institutes, The University of Chicago)

  • Rémi Carmigniani

    (The James Franck and Enrico Fermi Institutes, The University of Chicago)

  • Anerudh Kannan

    (The James Franck and Enrico Fermi Institutes, The University of Chicago)

  • Justin C. Burton

    (The James Franck and Enrico Fermi Institutes, The University of Chicago)

  • Sidney R. Nagel

    (The James Franck and Enrico Fermi Institutes, The University of Chicago)

Abstract

When two liquid drops touch, a microscopic connecting liquid bridge forms and rapidly grows as the two drops merge into one. Whereas coalescence has been thoroughly studied when drops coalesce in vacuum or air, many important situations involve coalescence in a dense surrounding fluid, such as oil coalescence in brine. Here we study the merging of gas bubbles and liquid drops in an external fluid. Our data indicate that the flows occur over much larger length scales in the outer fluid than inside the drops themselves. Thus, we find that the asymptotic early regime is always dominated by the viscosity of the drops, independent of the external fluid. A phase diagram showing the crossovers into the different possible late-time dynamics identifies a dimensionless number that signifies when the external viscosity can be important.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph D. Paulsen & Rémi Carmigniani & Anerudh Kannan & Justin C. Burton & Sidney R. Nagel, 2014. "Coalescence of bubbles and drops in an outer fluid," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-7, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4182
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4182
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4182
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms4182?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4182. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.