Drop formation in a co-flowing ambient fluid

Drop formation at a capillary tip in laminar flow is investigated experimentally. The disperse phase is injected via a needle into another co-flowing immiscible fluid. Two different drop formation mechanisms are distinguished: Either the drops are formed close to the capillary tip-dripping-or they break up from an extended liquid jet-jetting. The effect of the process and material parameters on the drop formation depends on the breakup mechanism and has to be investigated for each flow domain separately. In this study, we focus on dripping. The drop breakup is affected by the flow dynamics of both the disperse and the continuous phase. Consequently, we investigate the effect of flow rates, fluid viscosities and interfacial tension on the droplet size and observe the dynamics of satellite drop generation. Whereas the fundamentals of disperse fluid injection via a capillary into an ambient fluid have been investigated extensively, the focus of this article is on providing a comprehensive experimental data set for proving the applicability of this technique as a dispersing tool. It is shown that drop formation at a capillary tip into a co-flowing ambient liquid represents a promising technique for the production of monodisperse droplets where the droplet size is controlled externally by the flow strength of the continuous phase. The breakup dynamics changes significantly at the transition point from dripping to jetting. Consequently, the transition point between the flow domains represents an important operating point. In this article, dripping is demarcated from jetting by studying the influence of the various material and process parameters on the transition point. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.