Oblique drop impact onto a deep liquid pool

Marise V. Gielen, Pascal Sleutel, Jos Benschop, Michel Riepen, Victoria Voronina, Detlef Lohse, Jacco H. Snoeijer, Michel Versluis, Hanneke Gelderblom

Published 2016-11-17Version 1

Oblique impact of drops on a solid or liquid surface is frequently observed in nature. Most studies on drop impact and splashing, however, focus on perpendicular impact. Here, we study oblique impact onto a deep liquid pool, where we quantify the splashing threshold, maximal cavity dimensions and cavity collapse by high-speed imaging above and below the water surface. Three different impact regimes are identified: smooth deposition onto the pool, splashing in the direction of impact only, and splashing in all directions. We provide scaling arguments that delineate these regimes by accounting for drop impact angle and Weber number. The angle of the axis of the cavity created below the water surface follows the impact angle of the drop independent of the Weber number, while cavity depth and its displacement with respect to the impact position depend on the Weber number. Weber number dependency of both the cavity depth and displacement is modeled using an energy argument.