Surfactant effects on the dynamics of a thin liquid sheet

Abstract

The dynamics of a free-surface slender two-dimensional stream (liquid sheet) issuing from a nozzle in the gravitational field in still air, under the effect of surface-active agents, are analysed experimentally. The particular test section geometry (the liquid is forced to assume a bidimensional form between two vertical guides and a horizontal plate placed at a certain variable distance from the nozzle exit section) employed in this study gives rise to various flow regimes depending on the governing parameters: liquid flow rate, sheet height, surface pressure, gravity. Two basic phenomena are observed: thinning of the sheet (with recirculating motion inside it) and sheet-threadlines transition. For a certain surfactant (bulk) concentration, there exists a minimum critical flow rate value for which the sheet is seen to thin starting at both of the sheet bottom corners. A ridge, usually referred to as a Reynolds ridge in the literature, separates the sheet from the thin-film regions. The thin films exhibit recirculating flows (caused by the onset of surfactant-induced surface-pressure-driven convection in the gravitational field) and extend to the entire rectangular interface as the flow rate is reduced. At zero flow rate the thinned sheet resembles a plane vertical soap film showing a recirculating cellular structure. These phenomena are linked to the presence of surface-active material adsorbed at the liquid-air interface and occur when the sheet height exceeds a critical value. Otherwise, at a critical flow rate value the liquid sheet breaks up into an array of (more or less regularly distributed) discrete threadlines (vertical jets), whose spacing depends on the surface tension of the test liquid.