Moving the surface a droplet sits on creates some interesting dynamics, especially if the surface is hydrophobic. That’s what we see here with these droplets launched off an impulsively-moved plate. Keep reading
Tag: droplets
“The Other Side”
“The Other Side” is a short film imagining fluids on the other side of people’s eyes. The fast-paced editing makes this one feel rather different from Thomas Blanchard’s other films, Keep reading
Levitation Without Boiling
One way to levitate droplets is to place them on a surface heated much higher than the droplet’s boiling point. This creates the Leidenfrost effect, where a droplet levitates on Keep reading
Surface Jets in Coalescing Droplets
What goes on when droplets merge is tough to observe, even with a high-speed camera. There are many factors at play: any momentum in the droplets, surface tension, gravity, and Keep reading
Coalescence in Heavy Metal Droplets
When a drop of water falls into a pool, it doesn’t always coalesce immediately. Instead, it can go through a coalescence cascade in which the drop partially coalesces, a daughter Keep reading
Collecting Dew
In areas of the world where fresh water is scarce, one potential source is dew collection. Scientists have been working in recent years on making overnight dew collection more efficient. The Keep reading
Polygonal Droplets
Spheres are a special shape; they provide the smallest possible surface area necessary to contain a given volume. And since surface tension tries to minimize surface energy by reducing the Keep reading
Engineering Droplets
A jet of falling liquid doesn’t remain a uniform cylinder; instead, it breaks into droplets. In this video, Bill Hammack explores why this is and what engineers have learned to Keep reading
The Bouncing Drop
For a droplet to bounce, we expect it to hit a wall or a sharp interface of some kind. But in a new study, researchers demonstrate a droplet that bounces Keep reading
Phase-Switching to Avoid Icing
Preventing ice and frost from forming on surfaces – especially airplane wings – is a major engineering concern. The chemical de-icing cocktails currently used in aviation are a short-lived solution, Keep reading