Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
197,357 studies31 sourcesUpdated 49 min ago
PreprintarXiv licencearXiv

How Surface Viscoelasticity Eliminates Satellite Drops

  • Xiaocong Yang
  • Qingfei Fu
  • Lijun Yang
  • Bingqiang Ji
Open at sourcePDFDOICite

Abstract

Satellite drops form widely during the breakup of liquid threads and constitute deleterious byproducts across a broad range of industrial technologies, yet their complete suppression has remained a longstanding challenge. Here, we experimentally report that surface viscoelasticity introduced by a small amount of bovine serum albumin can fully eliminate satellite drops, via modulating the localized spatiotemporal topology near pinch-off singularity. During the late thinning stage, surface shear viscosity counterbalances the capillary and stably anchors the thinning neck at the midpoint between the two primary beads, fundamentally precluding satellite droplet formation. We further propose a scaling law to describe the unique self-similar thinning behaviors dictated by surface viscosity. These results shed light on the thinning dynamics of liquid threads with surface rheology and offer a promising strategy to eliminate satellite drops in practical applications.

Related

  1. Assessing uniaxial loading protocols for predictive identification of aortic viscoelasticity
    Morgane Martin-Borret, Baptiste Pierrat, Aline Bel-Brunon
    Multidisciplinary Biomechanics JournalPeer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full textGeneral physicsHAL
  2. Film Drainage between Colliding Drops at Constant Approach Velocity: Experiments and Modeling
    Evert Klaseboer, J.Ph. Chevaillier, C. Gourdon +1
    Journal of Colloid and Interface SciencePeer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full text231 citedGeneral physicsHAL
  3. Thixotropy versus viscoelasticity: a matter of time
    Rishabh V. More
    arXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textCondensed matterFluid dynamicsarXiv
  4. Inelastic spreading of viscoelastic drops
    Mete Abbot, Thijs Varkevisser, Manglesh Singh +3
    arXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textCondensed matterFluid dynamicsarXiv
  5. Aerosol generation by the splashing of low viscosity drops impacting liquid layers
    Guillaume Riboux, José Manuel Gordillo
    arXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textFluid dynamicsarXiv

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{yang2026surface,
  title = {{How Surface Viscoelasticity Eliminates Satellite Drops}},
  author = {Xiaocong Yang and Qingfei Fu and Lijun Yang and Bingqiang Ji},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.28071},
  eprint = {2608.28071},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28071},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - How Surface Viscoelasticity Eliminates Satellite Drops
AU  - Xiaocong Yang
AU  - Qingfei Fu
AU  - Lijun Yang
AU  - Bingqiang Ji
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/28
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.28071
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28071
AB  - Satellite drops form widely during the breakup of liquid threads and constitute deleterious byproducts across a broad range of industrial technologies, yet their complete suppression has remained a longstanding challenge. Here, we experimentally report that surface viscoelasticity introduced by a small amount of bovine serum albumin can fully eliminate satellite drops, via modulating the localized spatiotemporal topology near pinch-off singularity. During the late thinning stage, surface shear viscosity counterbalances the capillary and stably anchors the thinning neck at the midpoint between the two primary beads, fundamentally precluding satellite droplet formation. We further propose a scaling law to describe the unique self-similar thinning behaviors dictated by surface viscosity. These results shed light on the thinning dynamics of liquid threads with surface rheology and offer a promising strategy to eliminate satellite drops in practical applications.
ER  -