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Updated: Jun 26, 2025

Impacts of Free-falling Spheres on a Deep Liquid Pool with Altered Fluid and Impactor Surface Conditions
Published on: February 17, 2019
Extremely large water droplet impact onto a deep liquid pool
Sandip Dighe1, Dilip Kumar Maity1, Jeffrey N Fonnesbeck1
1Mechanical Engineering Program, Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Abstract:
Most studies of droplet impact on liquid pools focus on droplet diameters up to the capillary length (0.27 cm). We break from convention and study extremely large water droplets (1 to 6 cm diameter) falling into a pool of water. We demonstrate that the depth and width of the cavity formed by large droplet impact is greatly influenced by the deformed shape of the droplet at impact (i.e., prolate, spherical, and oblate), and larger droplets amplify this behavior by flattening before impact. In particular, the maximum cavity depth is a function of the Froude number and axis ratio of the droplet just before impact. Further, the cavity depth is more dependent on the droplet height than width, and the maximum cavity diameter is independent of the droplet height. In general, we observe that more oblate droplets result in decreasing cavity depths for a fixed liquid volume. This is because an increase in horizontal droplet diameter results in a reduced impact energy flux and therefore reduced cavity depth.
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