Shape Oscillation and Detachment of Droplet on Vibrating Flat Surface

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the mode characteristics of a droplet subject to periodic forced vibration and the detachment of a droplet placed on a plate surface. An surface was coated with Teflon to clearly observe the behavior of a droplet. The contact angle between the droplet and surface and the hysteresis were found to be approximately 115° and within 25°, respectively. The coating process was performed in a clean room that had an environment with a low level of contaminants and impurities such as air dust, detergents, and particles. To predict the resonance frequency of a droplet, theoretical and experimental approaches were applied. Two high-speed cameras were configured to acquire side and top views and thus capture different characteristics of a droplet: the mode shape, the detachment, the separated secondary droplet, and the waggling motion. A comparison of the theoretical and experimental results shows no more than 18 discrepancies when predicting the resonance frequency. These differences seem to be caused by contact line friction, nonlinear wall adhesion, and the uncertainty of the experiment. For lower energy inputs, the contact line of the droplet was pinned and the oscillation pattern was axisymmetric. However, the contact line of the droplet was de-pinned as the oscillation became more vigorous with increased energy input. The size of each lobe at the resonance frequency is somewhat larger than that at the neighboring frequency. A droplet in mode 2, one of the primary mode frequencies, exhibits vertical periodic movement as well as detachment and secondary ejection from the main droplet.Corresponding