Wetting failure in the early stage of water drop impact on a smooth solid surface

Abstract

A water drop impacting a dry solid surface can eject a thin liquid sheet, which is forced to expand on the surface to wet the solid surface. Wetting failure, which produces defects in applications based on the impact of drops, including coating, cooling, cleaning, and printing, may occur with a sufficiently large liquid-sheet velocity. However, the exact onset of wetting failure when a drop impacts the surface has yet to be determined. Therefore, we examine the dependence of rim instability immediately after liquid-sheet ejection on the static contact angle of the solid surface at the instant of water drop impact. This study is the first attempt to solve this problem and is made possible only by using an ultra-high-speed camera. We revealed that wetting failure can occur by investigating the rim instability of the liquid sheet.