English

Hydrodynamic response of a surfactant-laden interface to a radial flow

Soft Condensed Matter 2019-12-20 v1 Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

We study the features of a radial Stokes flow due to a submerged jet directed toward a liquid-air interface. The presence of surface-active impurities confers to the interface an in-plane elasticity that resists the incident flow. Both analytical and numerical calculations show that a minute amount of surfactants is enough to profoundly alter the morphology of the flow. The hydrodynamic response of the interface is affected as well, shifting from slip to no-slip boundary condition as the surface compressibility decreases. We argue that the competition between the divergent outward flow and the elastic response of the interface may actually be used as a practical way to detect and quantify a small amount of impurities.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.13540,
  title  = {Hydrodynamic response of a surfactant-laden interface to a radial flow},
  author = {T. Bickel and J. -C. Loudet and G. Koleski and B. Pouligny},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.13540},
  year   = {2019}
}