Walking droplets have been halted

The swinging motion of the eigenmodes of a free inviscid drop has been known for nearly a century. Yet, as the drop sits on a solid substrate, getting flattened by gravity, analytical solutions waver due to the non-spherical base state and the dynamics of the three-phase contact line. The recent paper by Zhang et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 962, 2023, A10) investigated the effect of gravity on the harmonic modes of sessile droplets for free and pinned contact line conditions. An effective boundary element method has been used to solve both axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric modes for a variety of Bond numbers and static contact angles, also revising on the way a debated capillary instability.

Automated summary

This study investigates the effect of gravity on the harmonic modes of static droplets and solves axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric modes using an effective boundary element method. The study also revises a debated capillary instability.