Rapid generation of relaxed centimeter-sized drops by capillary auto-ejection
Abstract
Many microgravity experiments require centimeter-sized spherical liquid drops. In drop-tower experiments, only a few seconds of microgravity are available, so the drops must be generated and reach a nearly relaxed state within a very short time. We investigate capillary auto-ejection (puddle jumping) as a passive mechanism for producing free-floating drops and investigate how the supporting cavity can be shaped to minimize the relaxation time after ejection. For cavities with a parabolic cross-section filled with a fixed liquid volume, minimization of the initial liquid surface area yields a unique shape, and smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations show that this shape also gives the shortest relaxation time within the parabolic family. Introducing a shallow central depression into the cavity reduces the relaxation time further, despite producing a larger initial liquid surface area. These results provide design principles for capillary-driven drop generators that enable the rapid production of relaxed centimeter-sized drops during the short microgravity intervals available in drop towers.
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BibTeX
@misc{mueller2026rapid,
title = {{Rapid generation of relaxed centimeter-sized drops by capillary auto-ejection}},
author = {Patric Mueller and Kai Ihrig and Achim Sack and Jonathan E. Kollmer and Thorsten Poeschel},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.01857},
eprint = {2610.01857},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.01857},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Rapid generation of relaxed centimeter-sized drops by capillary auto-ejection
AU - Patric Mueller
AU - Kai Ihrig
AU - Achim Sack
AU - Jonathan E. Kollmer
AU - Thorsten Poeschel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.01857
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.01857
AB - Many microgravity experiments require centimeter-sized spherical liquid drops. In drop-tower experiments, only a few seconds of microgravity are available, so the drops must be generated and reach a nearly relaxed state within a very short time. We investigate capillary auto-ejection (puddle jumping) as a passive mechanism for producing free-floating drops and investigate how the supporting cavity can be shaped to minimize the relaxation time after ejection. For cavities with a parabolic cross-section filled with a fixed liquid volume, minimization of the initial liquid surface area yields a unique shape, and smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations show that this shape also gives the shortest relaxation time within the parabolic family. Introducing a shallow central depression into the cavity reduces the relaxation time further, despite producing a larger initial liquid surface area. These results provide design principles for capillary-driven drop generators that enable the rapid production of relaxed centimeter-sized drops during the short microgravity intervals available in drop towers.
ER -