Impact of particle-laden drops: Particle distribution on the substrate

The splat morphology after the impact of suspension drops on hydrophilic (glass) and hydrophobic (polycarbonate) substrates was investigated. The suspensions were mixtures of water and spherical hydrophobic particles with diameter of 200μm or 500μm. The impact was studied by side, bottom and angled view images. At Reynolds and Weber numbers in the range 150⩽We⩽750 and 7100⩽Re⩽16,400, the particles distributed in a monolayer on the hydrophilic substrates. It was found that the 200μm particles self-arranged as rings or disks on the hydrophilic substrates. On hydrophobic substrates, many particles were at the air-water interface and 200μm formed a crown-like structure. The current study for impact of particle-laden drops shows that the morphology of splats depends on the substrate wettability, the particle size and impact velocity. We developed correlations for the inner and outer diameter of the particle distribution on the hydrophilic substrates, and for the crown height on hydrophobic substrates. The proposed correlations capture the character of the particle distributions after drop impact that depends on particle volume fraction, the wettability of both particles and the substrate, and the dimensionless numbers such as Reynolds and Weber.