Note: A top-view optical approach for observing the coalescence of liquid drops

We developed a new device that is capable of top-view optical examination of the coalescence of liquid drops. The device exhibits great potential for visualization, particularly for the early stage of liquid bridge expansion, owing to the use of a high-speed shadowgraph technique. The fluid densities of the two approaching drops and that of the ambient fluid are carefully selected to be negligibly different, which allows the size of the generated drops to be unlimitedly large in principle. The unique system design allows the point of coalescence between two drops to serve as an undisturbed optical pathway through which to image the coalescence process. The proposed technique extended the dimensionless initial finite radius of the liquid bridge to 0.001, in contrast to 0.01 obtained for conventional optical measurements. An examination of the growth of the bridge radius for a water and oil-tetrachloroethylene system provided results similar to Paulsen's power laws of the inertially limited viscous and inertial regimes. Furthermore, a miniscule shift in the center of the liquid bridge was detected at the point of crossover between the two regimes, which can be scarcely distinguished with conventional side-view techniques.