Biomedical subjects

Wendy W Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Wendy W Zhang.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Breakup of air bubbles in water: memory and breakdown of cylindrical symmetry.

Using high-speed video, we have studied air bubbles detaching from an underwater nozzle. As a bubble distorts, it forms a thin neck which develops a singular shape as it pinches off. As in other singularities, the minimum neck radius scales with the time until the breakup. However, because the air-water interfacial tension does not drive the breakup, even small initial cylindrical asymmetries are preserved throughout the collapse. This novel, nonuniversal singularity retains a memory of the nozzle shape, size, and tilt angle. In the last stages, the air appears to tear instead of pinch.

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PubMed2005

Drop splashing on a dry smooth surface.

The corona splash due to the impact of a liquid drop on a smooth dry substrate is investigated with high-speed photography. A striking phenomenon is observed: splashing can be completely suppressed by decreasing the pressure of the surrounding gas. The threshold pressure where a splash first occurs is measured as a function of the impact velocity and found to scale with the molecular weight of the gas and the viscosity of the liquid. Both experimental scaling relations support a model in which compressible effects in the gas are responsible for splashing in liquid solid impacts.

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PubMed2004

Viscous entrainment from a nozzle: singular liquid spouts.

We analyze a long-wavelength model of viscous entrainment from a nozzle and show that, when appropriate large-scale boundary conditions are imposed, the entrainment transition can become continuous. As the entrainment threshold is approached from above, the entrained steady-state spout becomes vanishingly thin compared to the nozzle radius and takes the form of a thin tendril emerging from a base profile whose tip is perfectly conical.

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PubMed2003

Persistence of memory in drop breakup: the breakdown of universality.

A low-viscosity drop breaking apart inside a viscous fluid is encountered when air bubbles, entrained in thick syrup or honey, rise and break apart. Experiments, simulations, and theory show that the breakup under conditions in which the interior viscosity can be neglected produces an exceptional form of singularity. In contrast to previous studies of drop breakup, universality is violated so that the final shape at breakup retains an imprint of the initial and boundary conditions. A finite interior viscosity, no matter how small, cuts off this form of singularity and produces an unexpectedly long and slender thread. If exterior viscosity is large enough, however, the cutoff does not occur because the minimum drop radius reaches subatomic dimensions first.

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