Shattering of a liquid drop due to impact

Abstract

Based on energy and entropy principles, a statistical model describing the shattered state of a single spherical liquid drop after being subjected to a relatively sudden but uniform (over the whole surface area of the drop) impact is developed. The problem is addressed from a fundamental standpoint, with the intention of providing a predictive framework for the various modes of breakup and the size and number of droplets produced. Upon neglecting viscous effects, several results in terms of the energy of impact, non-dimensionalized with respect to the surface energy of the drop before impact, are derived. The model is quite simple and straightforward, yet it appears to predict in a fairly consistent manner certain experimental observations that have been made repeatedly in relation to drop breakup in stirred dispersions, by collision, and exposure to shocks.