HydrodynamicPressureActingonaFreeDropunder.docVIP

Hydrodynamic Pressure Acting on a Free Drop under Interfacial Tension Gradients Ioan-Raducan Stan*, Maria Tomoaia-Cotisel* and Aurelia Stan** *Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Department of Physical Chemistry, Arany Janos Street, No. 11, 400026 Cluj- Napoca, Romania, **County School Department of Cluj, Romania Abstract The movements of liquid drops resulting from unbalanced surface tension forces constitute an important surface phenomenon, known as the Marangoni effect. In our previous papers [4, 5, 6, 7] we have studied only the translation motion of the drop, generated by the hydrodynamic pressure, when a part or entire drop surface is covered with a surfactant [6, 7]. The aim of this paper is to correlate the effect of hydrodynamic pressure forces on the drop, with the surface coverage degree, namely on the extent to which the drop surface is covered with surfactant. Our calculations show that for a coverage degree less then 680, these forces are negative, this means that the forces exerted by the external liquid upon the drop is oriented towards the negative direction of the normal to the drop surface. This force acts like a “hammer” generating the flow instability on the drop, first, as surface waves which can transfer, by viscosity, their energy to produce internal waves [8, 9]. These internal waves are similar with those sea weaves named tsunami. So, we suppose that the deformations, rotations and oscillations of a drop under interfacial tension gradients are due to these internal waves, excited by the Marangoni flow. 1. Introduction A drop submerged in an immiscible liquid, initially motionless, being at neutral buoyancy or at zero gravity is called free. The application of an interfacial tension gradient on the drop surface can cause various motions of the free drop in a liquid. The desired tension gradient can be introduced in many ways. One of them, the subject of the present work, is caused by su