Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 18, 2026

Visualization of High Speed Liquid Jet Impaction on a Moving Surface
Published on: April 17, 2015
Creation of prompt and thin-sheet splashing by varying surface roughness or increasing air pressure
Andrzej Latka1, Ariana Strandburg-Peshkin, Michelle M Driscoll
1The James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. alatka@uchicago.edu
Abstract:
A liquid drop impacting a solid surface may splash either by emitting a thin liquid sheet that subsequently breaks apart or by promptly ejecting droplets from the advancing liquid-solid contact line. Using high-speed imaging, we show that surface roughness and air pressure influence both mechanisms. Roughness inhibits thin-sheet formation even though it also increases prompt splashing at the advancing contact line. If the air pressure is lowered, droplet ejection is suppressed not only during thin-sheet formation but also for prompt splashing.
Related Concept Videos
Excess Pressure Inside a Drop and a Bubble
Fluid Pressure over Flat Plate of Variable Width
The pressure distribution on the plate can be calculated by determining the force that acts on a differential area strip of the plate. Thus, the magnitude of the force is equal to the...
Surface Tension of Fluid
Surface tension varies with...
Surface Tension
Bernoulli's Principle: Applications
Entrainment devices use a high fluid speed to create low pressures and, thus, entrain one fluid into another. Some examples of these devices are given below:
Hydrostatic Pressure Force on a Plane Surface

