Contact time of a bouncing drop.
When a liquid drop lands on a solid surface without wetting it, it bounces with remarkable elasticity. Here we measure how long the drop remains in contact with the solid during the shock, a problem that was considered by Hertz for a bouncing ball. Our findings could help to quantify the efficiency of water-repellent surfaces (super-hydrophobic solids) and to improve water-cooling of hot solids, which is limited by the rebounding of drops as well as by temperature effects.
Richard
Denis
D
Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, URA 792 du CNRS, Collège de France, Paris, France.
Clanet
Christophe
C
Quéré
David
D