On the formation and recurrent shedding of ligaments in droplet aerobreakup

The breakup of water droplets when exposed to high-speed gas flows is investigated using both high-magnification shadowgraphy experiments as well as fully three-dimensional numerical simulations, which account for viscous as well as capillary effects. After thorough validation of the simulations with respect to the experiments, we elucidate the ligament formation process and the effect of surface tension. By Fourier decomposition of the flow field, we observe the development of specific azimuthal modes, which destabilize the liquid sheet surrounding the droplet. Eventually, the liquid sheet is ruptured, which leads to the formation of ligaments. We further observe the ligament formation and shedding to be a recurrent process. While the first ligament shedding weakly depends on the Weber number, subsequent shedding processes seem to be driven primarily by inertia and the vortex shedding in the wake of the deformed droplet.