MDPD Simulations of liquid thread break-up and formation of droplets

The breakup of liquid threads is a fundamental process in nature and relevant for many industrial applications, such as drug manufacturing, inkjet printing, and nanowire fabrication. The classical theory used to describe the breakup of liquid threads has its origins in the works of Rayleigh and Plateau. By means of linear stability analysis, they have shown that a fluid cylinder is un stable for perturbations characterised by a wavelength larger than its circumference. Moreover, there is a characteristic wavelength that the perturbations are the most unstable. In our study, we have employed mesoscale simulations of a coarse-grained model (MDPD) to determine the characteristic wavelength of liquid nanothreads within the statistical uncertainty for a range of fluids, characterised by different Ohnesorge numbers and accessible to our model. Also, we have identified the mechanisms of satellite-droplets formation and characterised their properties. We anticipate that our study contributes to the understanding of a fundamental process in nature and paves the way for further developments in this area for relevant applications.