Happy to attend this wonderful meeting first time in the Netherlands!
I presented our recent work on drop coalescence, and had nice discussions with PhD students, postdocs, and professors across Netherlands.
Droplet coalescence is essential from inkjet printing to aerosols in spraying. In all such processes the drop size distribution is important, which is not only governed by drop formation, but also to a large part by coalescence. Despite numerous studies on drop coalescence, it is still debated in the early stages (~μs). Combining fast imaging and computational modelling, we elucidate the role of the intervene gas and the van der Waals forces on drop-drop and drop-bath coalescence. In the latter, it reveals that the gas influences both pre- and post-contact regimes, with a jump-to-contact being the primary mode of merging, and the observation of wave-like air pockets.
Kaili Xie