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Material Science and Engineering

Low pressure reduces bubble trouble

Spray coating and inkjet-based electronics manufacture are among the industrial applications in which liquid droplets are applied to a surface. But minuscule air bubbles that get trapped beneath the droplet as it lands can affect the coating’s quality and uniformity.

Sigurdur Thoroddsen and his team from KAUST set up an experiment to test whether bubble formation would be suppressed at lower air pressures. The team created a vacuum chamber equipped with a high-speed camera to observe droplet bubble formation (above image). “Reducing the air pressure had many advantages, including decreasing the bubble size and suppressing splashing,” says Kenneth Langley, Thoroddsen’s Ph.D. student. But there’s a sweet spot, he adds. “We discovered that if you reduce the pressure too much, you will entrain more gas bubbles than at higher pressures.”

Sigurdur Thoroddsen and his team from KAUST set up an experiment to test whether bubble formation would be suppressed at lower air pressures. The team created a vacuum chamber equipped with a high-speed camera to observe droplet bubble formation (above image). “Reducing the air pressure had many advantages, including decreasing the bubble size and suppressing splashing,” says Kenneth Langley, Thoroddsen’s Ph.D. student. But there’s a sweet spot, he adds. “We discovered that if you reduce the pressure too much, you will entrain more gas bubbles than at higher pressures.”

At these low pressures, the team observed the usual central disk of air is trapped, but the droplet then unexpectedly trapped a second, outer ring of air, which quickly collapsed into individual bubbles (above image; from left to right, high-speed camera images captured 0.1 microseconds, 1.3 microseconds and 18 microseconds after first contact of the liquid droplet on the glass platform).

At these low pressures, the team observed the usual central disk of air is trapped, but the droplet then unexpectedly trapped a second, outer ring of air, which quickly collapsed into individual bubbles (above image; from left to right, high-speed camera images captured 0.1 microseconds, 1.3 microseconds and 18 microseconds after first contact of the liquid droplet on the glass platform). 

© 2018 KAUST

References

  1. Li, E., Langley, K.R., Tian, Y.S., Hicks, P.D. & Thoroddsen, S.T. Double contact during drop impact on a solid under reduced air pressure. Physical Review Letters 119, 214502 (2017).| article

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ph.D. Student Kenneth Langley

Kenneth Langley is a Ph.D. student in Sigurdur Thoroddsen's laboratory. In 2015, after working as a civilian engineer for the U.S. Air Force, Langley came to KAUST to join Thoroddsen's lab and their focus on experiments in fluid mechanics using high-speed imaging. Researchers in Thoroddsen's lab investigate the dynamics of drops and bubbles, including splashing, wetting and the formation of jets and sprays.

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