Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics numerical simulations of droplets walking on viscous vibrating liquid

TL;DR

This paper uses Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations to model the 'walking droplet' phenomenon on vibrating viscous liquids, demonstrating wave-particle coupling similar to quantum systems.

Contribution

First numerical simulation of walking droplets using SPH, showing wave-particle interaction and constant velocity travel consistent with experimental observations.

Findings

Wave-drop coupling is achieved in simulations.

Droplets and waves travel at nearly constant velocity.

Phenomenon could occur in various physical configurations.

Abstract

We study the phenomenon of the "walking droplet", by means of numerical fluid dynamics simulations using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics numerical method. This phenomenon occurs when a millimetric drop is released on the surface of an oil of the same composition, contained in a tank and subjected to vertical oscillations of frequency and amplitude very close to the Faraday instability threshold. At appropriate values of the parameters of the system under study, the oil droplet jumps permanently on the surface of the vibrating liquid forming a localized wave-particle system, reminding the behaviour of a wave particle quantum system as suggested by de Broglie. In our study, we made relevant simplifying assumptions, however we observe that the wave-drop coupling is surely obtained. Moreover, the droplet and the wave travel at nearly constant velocity, as observed in experiments. These facts suggest that the phenomenon may occur in many contexts and opens the possibility to study it in an extremely wide range of physical configurations.