Impact of an Elastic Drop on a Thin Cylinder

Abstract

The collision of drops of water and elastic liquids with a thin cylinder (fiber) has been studied. Aqueous solutions of polymers were used as elastic liquids, which simulated the rheological behavior of oral fluid—the main carrier of infections by airborne drops. Water as a Newtonian fluid was investigated to identify the elastic effects when comparing the collisions of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids—water and polymer solutions. The flight path of the drop and the cylinder axis are mutually perpendicular. Attention is focused on the difference between the collisions of water drops and drops of elastic liquids. In the experiments, the diameter of the drop was 3 mm, and the diameter of the horizontal stainless-steel cylinders was 0.4 and 0.8 mm. Drops were formed by the slow flow of liquid from a vertical stainless-steel capillary with an outer diameter of 0.8 mm, from which the drops were periodically separated under the influence of gravity. The velocity of the drop before the collision was determined by the distance between the end of the capillary and the target (cylinder); in the experiments, this distance was 5, 10, and 20 mm. The velocities of falling drops before impact were estimated in the range of 0.2–0.5 m/s. The collision process was monitored using high-speed video recording methods with frame rates of 240 and 960 Hz. Water and aqueous solutions of polyacrylamide with a molecular weight of 11 million and concentrations of 100 and 1000 ppm were used as test liquids. Experiments have shown that, depending on the height of the drop and the concentration of the polymer, various drop collision scenarios are possible: (1) short-term rebound of the drop from an obstacle, (2) braking and stopping the drop on the obstacle, (3) flow of the drop around a cylindrical obstacle while maintaining continuity and continuing free flight, (4) disintegration of the drop into two secondary drops, each with its own history of subsequent flight.