Coalescence cascade and Marangoni

Simulations of a droplet coalescing with a liquid bath when the drop’s surface tension exceeds that of the bath.

When a water drop coalesces into a puddle or pond, the dynamics is much more rich than casual observation would suggest. High-speed video imaging reveals that instead of simply disappearing into the underlying bath, it undergoes a series of partial coalescence events in which the droplet radius decreases by roughly 50 percent (Blanchette and Bigioni 2006). In Blanchette, Messio and Bush (2006) , we examine the role of surface tension gradients on the coalescence cascade.

For a clip of our appearance on Discovery Channel’s Time Warp, see the video at the bottom of the Interfacial Phenomena page..

PRESS:  New York Times

All know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that the ocean merges into the drop.” – Kabir