Experimental studies on the effect of Reynolds and Weber numbers on the impact forces of low-speed droplets colliding with a solid surface

The impact force of low-speed droplets colliding with a solid surface was recorded with an experimental setup involving a highly sensitive piezoelectric force transducer and a high-speed camera recording the droplet shape. Water, ethanol, pure glycerin and aqueous glycerin solutions were used. Experimental results showed that dimensionless force is independent of the Weber number in the experimental range of 68-858 but varies with the Reynolds number. The impact is categorized into three types of processes according to the data on dimensionless peak force against the Reynolds number. The first type is a viscosity-dominated one, in which the Reynolds number ranges between 2.9 and 20. In the second type, transition process, the Reynolds number is in the range of 20-230. In the inertia-dominated type, the Reynolds number is larger than 230. In the viscosity-dominated impact, dimensionless peak force decreases rapidly with increasing Reynolds number, and the effect of viscosity could not be ignored. In the inertia-dominated impact, dimensionless peak force remains constant with varying the Reynolds number, that is, impact force is directly proportional to the product of liquid density, velocity squared and diameter squared but is unaffected by the changes in viscosity and surface tension. Furthermore, the deformation of droplet shape due to oscillation affects the impact force; a small horizontal-to-vertical ratio results in small impact force and vice versa.