Analytical Description of the Breakup of Liquid Jets in Air
Abstract
A viscous or inviscid cylindrical jet with surface tension on in a vacuum tends to pinch due to the mechanism of capillary instability. We construct similarity solutions which describe this phenomenon as a critical time is encountered, for two physically distinct cases: (1) Inviscid jets governed by the Euler equations, (2) highly viscous jets governed by the Stokes equations. In both cases the only assumption imposed is that at the time of pinching the jet shape has a radial length scale which is smaller than the axial length scale. For the inviscid case, we show that our solution corresponds exactly to one member of the one-parameter family of solutions obtained from slender jet theories and the shape of the jet is locally concave at breakup. For highly viscous jets our theory predicts local shapes which are monotonic increasing or decreasing indicating the formation of a mother drop connected to the jet by a thin fluid tube. This qualitative behavior is in complete agreement with both direct numerical simulations and experimental observations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA271853
Entities
People
- Demetrios T. Papageorgiou