Shaping liquid drops by vibration

TL;DR

This paper models how vertically vibrated liquid drops change shape, showing experimental-like behaviors such as elongation, oscillation, and fragmentation, depending on size and vibration amplitude.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal hydrodynamic model that captures diverse dynamic shape transformations of vibrated liquid drops, aligning with experimental observations.

Findings

Circular drops become unstable and elongate at high vibration amplitudes.

Smaller drops oscillate with half the vibration frequency.

Larger drops form long, snake-like structures that may fragment.

Abstract

We present and analyze a minimal hydrodynamic model of a vertically vibrated liquid drop that undergoes dynamic shape transformations. In agreement with experiments, a circular lens-shaped drop is unstable above a critical vibration amplitude, spontaneously elongating in horizontal direction. Smaller drops elongate into localized states that oscillate with half of the vibration frequency. Larger drops evolve by transforming into a snake-like structure with gradually increasing length. The worm state is long-lasting with a potential to fragmentat into smaller drops.