Leidenfrost explosions
F. Moreau, P. Colinet, and S. Dorbolo

TL;DR
This study investigates how adding surfactant to water droplets affects the Leidenfrost effect, revealing that at high surfactant concentrations, droplets explosively rupture due to shell formation and pressure buildup.
Contribution
It demonstrates the formation of a solid shell at high surfactant concentrations and links it to explosive rupture in Leidenfrost droplets, a novel observation in fluid dynamics.
Findings
Explosive behavior occurs at surfactant concentrations about 100 times the CMC.
A solid shell forms around the droplet before explosion.
Pressure buildup causes shell rupture leading to violent explosions.
Abstract
We present a fluid dynamics video showing the behavior of Leidenfrost droplets composed by a mixture of water and surfactant (SDS, Sodium Dodecyl sulfate). When a droplet is released on a plate heated above a given temperature a thin layer of vapor isolates the droplet from the plate. The droplet levitates over the plate. This is called the Leidenfrost effect. In this work we study the influence of the addition of a surfactant on the Leidenfrost phenomenon. As the droplet evaporates the concentration of SDS rises up to two orders of magnitude over the Critical Micelle Concentration (CMC). An unexpected and violent explosive behavior is observed. The video presents several explosions taken with a high speed camera (IDT-N4 at 30000 fps). All the presented experiments were performed on a plate heated at 300{\deg}C. On the other hand, the initial quantity of SDS was tuned in two ways:…
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