arXiv subjects

Kindness Isukwem

Publications and source records attributed to Kindness Isukwem.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Dripping-onto-droplet capillary breakup

This experimental, numerical, and theoretical study investigates the capillary thinning and breakup of Newtonian filaments formed following the coalescence of a millimetric-nozzle-generated pendant drop with a lower droplet cap contained in a millimetric cylinder in ambient air, i.e., dripping-onto-droplet capillary breakup (DoD). Our mixed approach combines filament breakup experiments recorded with a high-speed camera and three-dimensional numerical simulations based on a variational multiscale framework for multiphase fluid flows. The results are analysed by considering the dynamics of fluid filament thinning, energy transfers, and scaling laws. Three flow regimes are highlighted: capillary-inertial, capillary-viscous, and mixed capillary-inertial-viscous. All regimes are affected by gravity. The findings are summarised in a two-dimensional diagram that correlates the filament breakup time with different flow regimes using the important dimensionless parameters of the problem, e.g., the Ohnesorge number (which relates the viscous stress to inertial and capillary stresses) and the Bond number (which balances the gravitational stress with the capillary one). This diagram can be used to quantify both the liquid viscosity and the liquid-gas surface tension (for Newtonian fluids). Lastly, we demonstrate that DoD can also be used as a rheometric test, giving access to the extensional relaxation time of polymer solutions (for viscoelastic fluids).

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Retraction of levitating drops

This theoretical and numerical study focuses on the physical mechanisms driving the retraction of levitating Newtonian micrometric/millimetric/centimetric drops surrounded by air and under zero-gravity conditions. The drops present a pancake-like initial shape, gradually converging towards a spherical one under surface tension effects. Three drop retraction regimes are observed: capillary-inertial; mixed capillary-inertio-viscous; and capillary-viscous. In the first regime, the retraction is essentially driven by a competition between capillary pressure and inertial stresses, which induces a complex flow with equivalent shear, uniaxial and biaxial components. As the viscous stress becomes comparable to the capillary and the inertial stresses, the second regime emerges while shear-based deformations tend to vanish. Lastly, the third regime is dominated by a balance between capillary and viscous stresses, essentially exhibiting axial deformation. These physical features are underlined through multiphase three-dimensional numerical simulations and analysed in light of retraction dynamics, energy transfer and scaling laws. Our results are rationalised in a two-dimensional diagram linking the drop retraction time with the observed retraction regimes through a single dimensionless parameter combining capillary, inertial, viscous and geometrical effects, i.e., the retraction number.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Dam break of viscoplastic elliptical objects

In this note, we numerically and theoretically analyze the physical mechanisms controlling the gravity-induced spreading of viscoplastic elliptical metric objects on a sticky solid surface (without sliding). The two-dimensional collapsing objects are described as Bingham fluids. The numerical simulations are based on a variational multi-scale approach devoted to multiphase non-Newtonian fluid flows. The results are depicted by considering the spreading dynamics, energy budgets, and new scaling laws. They show that, under negligible inertial effects, the driving gravitational energy of the elliptical columns is dissipated through viscoplastic effects during the collapse, giving rise to three flow regimes: gravito-viscous, gravito-plastic, and mixed gravito-visco-plastic. These regimes are strongly affected by the initial aspect ratio of the collapsing column, which reveals the possibility of using morphology to control spreading. Finally, the results are summarized in a diagram linking the object's maximum spreading and the collapse time with different collapsing regimes through a single dimensionless parameter called collapse number.

physics.flu-dyn↗