Coupled oscillations of deformable spherical-cap droplets. Part 2. Viscous motions

Abstract

AbstractA spherical drop is constrained by a solid support arranged as a latitudinal belt. The spherical belt splits the drop into two deformable spherical caps. The edges of the belt support are given by lower and upper latitudes, yielding a support of prescribed extent and position: a two-parameter family of geometrical constraints. In this paper we study the linear oscillations of the two coupled surfaces in the viscous case, the inviscid case having been dealt with in Part 1 (Bostwick & Steen, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 714, 2013, pp. 312–335), restricting to axisymmetric disturbances. For the viscous case, limiting geometries are the spherical-bowl constraint of Strani & Sabetta (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 189, 1988, pp. 397–421) and free viscous drop of Prosperetti (J. Méc., vol. 19, 1980b, pp. 149–182). In this paper, a boundary-integral approach leads to an integro-differential boundary-value problem governing the interface disturbances, where the constraint is incorporated into the function space. Viscous effects arise due to relative internal motions and to the no-slip boundary condition on the support surface. No-slip is incorporated using a modified set of shear boundary conditions. The eigenvalue problem is then reduced to a truncated set of algebraic equations using a spectral method in the standard way. Limiting cases recover literature results to validate the proposed modification. Complex frequencies, as they depend upon the viscosity parameter and the support geometry, are reported for both the drop and bubble cases. Finally, for the drop, an approximate boundary between over- and under-damped motions is mapped over the constraint parameter plane.