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On Free Moving Micron-Sized Droplet-Particle Collisions
Preprint   Open access

On Free Moving Micron-Sized Droplet-Particle Collisions

Tushar Srivastava, Karrar H Al-Dirawi, Benjamin Lobel and Andrew E Bayly
ArXiv.org
Cornell University
05/03/2026
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Open Access CC BY V4.0

Abstract

Physics - Fluid Dynamics
Predictive modelling of agglomeration in spray drying and particle capture in aerosol scavenging requires a fundamental understanding of droplet-particle collisions. The study complements prior work by investigating mid-air collisions between free micron-sized spherical droplets and particles with a size ratio of three. Particle wettability and density are varied to elucidate the mechanisms governing collision outcomes and the role of collision offset. Results show that particle density determines whether a particle is engulfed by the droplet or remains at the droplet interface during capture, while high wettability suppresses particle separation even in glancing collisions. A modified effective Weber number incorporating particle density and wettability is proposed to map collision outcomes. To assess its robustness, the present data are combined with literature results in a unified regime map. The regime boundaries separating collision outcomes collapse when the size ratio and Ohnesorge number are held constant. However, at a given collision offset, variations in size ratio and Ohnesorge number alter the critical effective Weber number for particle separation through changes in collision geometry and viscous resistance.

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