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Surface phenomena

Contact time of a bouncing drop

Nature volume 417, page 811 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

When a liquid drop lands on a solid surface without wetting it, it bounces with remarkable elasticity1,2,3. Here we measure how long the drop remains in contact with the solid during the shock, a problem that was considered by Hertz4 for a bouncing ball. Our findings could help to quantify the efficiency of water-repellent surfaces (super-hydrophobic solids5) and to improve water-cooling of hot solids, which is limited by the rebounding of drops6 as well as by temperature effects.

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Figure 1: Millimetre-sized water drops with different Weber numbers (W) hitting a super-hydrophobic solid.
Figure 2: Contact time of a bouncing drop as a function of impact velocity and drop radius.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, URA 792 du CNRS, Collège de France, Paris, 75231, Cedex 05, France

    Denis Richard & David Quéré

  2. Institut de Recherche sur les Phénomènes Hors Équilibre, UMR 6594 du CNRS, BP 146, Marseille Cedex, 13384, France

    Christophe Clanet

Authors
  1. Denis Richard
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  2. Christophe Clanet
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  3. David Quéré
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Quéré.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Richard, D., Clanet, C. & Quéré, D. Contact time of a bouncing drop. Nature 417, 811 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/417811a

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