Re-emergence of fingering in solidifying liquid-metal drops
Abstract
Solidification is expected to suppress fingering by removing mobile liquid. Here we report an unexpected re-emergence of fingering in impacting molten-tin drops: cooling first weakens peripheral fingers, but stronger undercooling restores them. At weak undercooling, fingers originate from a decelerating liquid rim and solidification reduces the effective acceleration that drives Rayleigh--Taylor-like amplification. At strong undercooling, solidification structures develop while liquid is still spreading, creating lateral mobility contrasts that redirect the residual flow. Comparison between the kinematically estimated solidification time and the experimentally measured fingering-onset and growth-termination times reveals a reversal in temporal ordering across the temperature range. A physics-based reduced-order model combines solidification-modified rim deceleration with mobility-gradient growth, captures the characteristic onset dynamics and accounts for the final finger length within the same physical framework.These findings establish solidification as an active means of regulating interfacial flow and morphology, with broad implications spanning metal-based additive manufacturing and debris mitigation in semiconducting industry.
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BibTeX
@misc{zhang2026reemergence,
title = {{Re-emergence of fingering in solidifying liquid-metal drops}},
author = {Siyu Zhang and Feng Wang and Yuan Ma and Hao Jiang and Kai Leong Chong and Quan Zhou and Chao Sun and Jianhua Zhang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.13533},
eprint = {2610.13533},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.13533},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Re-emergence of fingering in solidifying liquid-metal drops
AU - Siyu Zhang
AU - Feng Wang
AU - Yuan Ma
AU - Hao Jiang
AU - Kai Leong Chong
AU - Quan Zhou
AU - Chao Sun
AU - Jianhua Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/09
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.13533
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.13533
AB - Solidification is expected to suppress fingering by removing mobile liquid. Here we report an unexpected re-emergence of fingering in impacting molten-tin drops: cooling first weakens peripheral fingers, but stronger undercooling restores them. At weak undercooling, fingers originate from a decelerating liquid rim and solidification reduces the effective acceleration that drives Rayleigh--Taylor-like amplification. At strong undercooling, solidification structures develop while liquid is still spreading, creating lateral mobility contrasts that redirect the residual flow. Comparison between the kinematically estimated solidification time and the experimentally measured fingering-onset and growth-termination times reveals a reversal in temporal ordering across the temperature range. A physics-based reduced-order model combines solidification-modified rim deceleration with mobility-gradient growth, captures the characteristic onset dynamics and accounts for the final finger length within the same physical framework.These findings establish solidification as an active means of regulating interfacial flow and morphology, with broad implications spanning metal-based additive manufacturing and debris mitigation in semiconducting industry.
ER -