Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Surface Tension, Capillary Action, and Viscosity

Surface Tension, Capillary Action, and Viscosity

Surface Tension
The various IMFs between identical molecules of a substance are examples of cohesive forces. The molecules within a liquid are surrounded by other molecules and are attracted equally in all directions by the cohesive forces within the liquid. However, the molecules on the surface of a liquid are attracted only by about one-half as many molecules. Because of the unbalanced molecular attractions on the surface molecules, liquids contract to form a shape that minimizes the number...

Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

Heating a crystalline solid increases the average energy of its atoms, molecules, or ions, and the solid gets hotter. At some point, the added energy becomes large enough to partially overcome the forces holding the molecules or ions of the solid in their fixed positions, and the solid begins the process of transitioning to the liquid state or melting. At this point, the temperature of the solid stops rising, despite the continual input of heat, and it remains constant until all of the solid is...

Surface Tension of Fluid

Surface Tension of Fluid

Surface tension is a fundamental property of fluids, occurring at the boundary between a liquid and a gas or between two immiscible liquids. This phenomenon arises from the cohesive forces between molecules at the fluid's surface, creating an effect similar to a stretched elastic membrane. Inside each fluid, molecules are equally attracted in all directions by neighboring molecules, but surface molecules experience a net inward force, resulting in surface tension.
Surface tension varies...

Viscosity of Fluid

Viscosity of Fluid

Viscosity measures the resistance a fluid offers to flow and deformation. It results from internal friction between layers of fluid moving relative to one another. Dynamic viscosity, denoted by the Greek letter mu (μ), quantifies the force needed to move one fluid layer over another. For Newtonian fluids like water and air, the relationship between the shearing stress and the rate of shearing strain is linear, meaning their viscosity remains constant regardless of the applied stress.

Viscosity

Viscosity

When water is poured into a glass, it falls freely and quickly, whereas if honey or maple syrup is poured over a pancake, it flows slowly and sticks to the surface of the container. This difference in the flow of different kinds of liquids arises due to the fluid friction between the liquid layers and the liquid and the surrounding material. This property of fluids is called fluid viscosity. In this example, water has a lower viscosity than honey and maple syrup.
The SI unit of viscosity is...

Surface Tension and Surface Energy

Surface Tension and Surface Energy

When a paint brush is immersed in water, the bristles wave freely inside the water. When it is taken out, the bristles stick together. The reason behind this effect is surface tension.
Consider a beaker filled with liquid. The bulk molecules in the liquid experience equal attractive forces on all sides with the surrounding molecules. However, the surface molecules experience a net attractive force downward due to the bulk molecules. The surface of the liquid behaves like a stretched membrane,...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Interface Dynamics of Droplet Impact onto a Viscoelastic Liquid Pool.

Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids·2025

Same author

Falling viscoelastic liquid films on a slippery substrate.

Physical review. E·2025

Same author

Incidence of MSI-H esophageal carcinoma and related identification of genomic alterations: A multi-center real-world study.

Human pathology·2025

Same author

Touching the classical scaling in penetrative convection.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2025

Same author

Spontaneous oscillation of an active filament under viscosity gradients.

Soft matter·2024

Same author

Digital economy and high-quality development of the healthcare industry.

Frontiers in public health·2024

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 10, 2025

Visualization of High Speed Liquid Jet Impaction on a Moving Surface

Visualization of High Speed Liquid Jet Impaction on a Moving Surface

Published on: April 17, 2015

Frozen Patterns in Viscoelastic Droplets Impacting on a Subcooled Surface.

Zhijun Jiang¹, Wenyuan Zhong¹, Youchuang Chao¹

¹School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.

Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids

|October 17, 2024

Summary

Viscoelastic polymer droplet impact on cold surfaces shows reduced spreading with higher subcooling and polymer concentration. Unlike pure fluids, polymer droplets exhibit only two freezing modes: freezing and hierarchical cracking.

More Related Videos

Fast Imaging Technique to Study Drop Impact Dynamics of Non-Newtonian Fluids

Fast Imaging Technique to Study Drop Impact Dynamics of Non-Newtonian Fluids

Published on: March 5, 2014

High Throughput Analysis of Liquid Droplet Impacts

High Throughput Analysis of Liquid Droplet Impacts

Published on: March 6, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 10, 2025

Visualization of High Speed Liquid Jet Impaction on a Moving Surface

Visualization of High Speed Liquid Jet Impaction on a Moving Surface

Published on: April 17, 2015

Fast Imaging Technique to Study Drop Impact Dynamics of Non-Newtonian Fluids

Fast Imaging Technique to Study Drop Impact Dynamics of Non-Newtonian Fluids

Published on: March 5, 2014

High Throughput Analysis of Liquid Droplet Impacts

High Throughput Analysis of Liquid Droplet Impacts

Published on: March 6, 2020

Area of Science:

Fluid dynamics
Materials science
Surface science

Background:

Droplet impact on cold surfaces is crucial for aircraft icing and 3D printing.
Understanding complex fluid droplet dynamics on cold surfaces remains limited.

Purpose of the Study:

To experimentally investigate the impact, spreading, and freezing of viscoelastic polymer droplets on subcooled substrates.
To characterize the resulting frozen patterns and identify influencing parameters.

Main Methods:

Controlled droplet impact experiments using viscoelastic polymer solutions.
Varying subcooling temperatures and polymer concentrations.
Analysis of droplet spreading diameter and frozen pattern morphology.

Main Results:

Maximum droplet spreading diameter decreases with increasing subcooling and polymer concentration.
Spreading data collapses onto a universal curve governed by inertial, capillary, and viscous forces.
Polymer droplets exhibit two distinct freezing modes: freezing and hierarchical cracking, unlike pure fluids.

Conclusions:

A phase diagram was constructed to characterize frozen patterns based on undercooling and polymer concentration.
Findings offer insights into complex fluid solidification for applications like spray coating and additive manufacturing.