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Numerical Study of Surfactant-Laden Drop-Drop Interactions

Publication ,  Journal Article
Xu, J-J; Li, Z; Lowengrub, J; Zhao, H
Published in: Communications in Computational Physics
August 2011

In this paper, we numerically investigate the effects of surfactant on drop-drop interactions in a 2D shear flow using a coupled level-set and immersed interface approach proposed in (Xu et al., J. Comput. Phys., 212 (2006), 590-616). We find that surfactant plays a critical and nontrivial role in drop-drop interactions. In particular, we find that the minimum distance between the drops is a non-monotone function of the surfactant coverage and Capillary number. This non-monotonic behavior, which does not occur for clean drops, is found to be due to the presence of Marangoni forces along the drop interfaces. This suggests that there are non-monotonic conditions for coalescence of surfactant-laden drops, as observed in recent experiments of Leal and co-workers. Although our study is two-dimensional, we believe that drop-drop interactions in three-dimensional flows should be qualitatively similar as the Maragoni forces in the near contact region in 3D should have a similar effect.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Communications in Computational Physics

DOI

EISSN

1991-7120

ISSN

1815-2406

Publication Date

August 2011

Volume

10

Issue

2

Start / End Page

453 / 473

Publisher

Global Science Press

Related Subject Headings

  • Applied Mathematics
 

Citation

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Xu, J.-J., Li, Z., Lowengrub, J., & Zhao, H. (2011). Numerical Study of Surfactant-Laden Drop-Drop Interactions. Communications in Computational Physics, 10(2), 453–473. https://doi.org/10.4208/cicp.090310.020610a
Xu, Jian-Jun, Zhilin Li, John Lowengrub, and Hongkai Zhao. “Numerical Study of Surfactant-Laden Drop-Drop Interactions.” Communications in Computational Physics 10, no. 2 (August 2011): 453–73. https://doi.org/10.4208/cicp.090310.020610a.
Xu J-J, Li Z, Lowengrub J, Zhao H. Numerical Study of Surfactant-Laden Drop-Drop Interactions. Communications in Computational Physics. 2011 Aug;10(2):453–73.
Xu, Jian-Jun, et al. “Numerical Study of Surfactant-Laden Drop-Drop Interactions.” Communications in Computational Physics, vol. 10, no. 2, Global Science Press, Aug. 2011, pp. 453–73. Crossref, doi:10.4208/cicp.090310.020610a.
Xu J-J, Li Z, Lowengrub J, Zhao H. Numerical Study of Surfactant-Laden Drop-Drop Interactions. Communications in Computational Physics. Global Science Press; 2011 Aug;10(2):453–473.
Journal cover image

Published In

Communications in Computational Physics

DOI

EISSN

1991-7120

ISSN

1815-2406

Publication Date

August 2011

Volume

10

Issue

2

Start / End Page

453 / 473

Publisher

Global Science Press

Related Subject Headings

  • Applied Mathematics