Inviscid coalescence of drops

Abstract

We study the coalescence of two drops of an ideal fluid driven by surface tension. The velocity of approach is taken to be zero and the dynamical effect of the outer fluid (usually air) is neglected. Our approximation is expected to be valid on scales larger than $\ell_{\nu} = \rho\nu^2/\sigma$, which is 10 nm for water. Using a high-precision boundary integral method, we show that the walls of the thin retracting sheet of air between the drops reconnect in finite time to form a toroidal enclosure. After the initial reconnection, retraction starts again, leading to a rapid sequence of enclosures. Averaging over the discrete events, we find the minimum radius of the liquid bridge connecting the two drops to scale like $r_b \propto t^{1/2}$.