title: Condensation-induced jumping water drops.
abstract: Water droplets can jump during vapor condensation on solid benzene near its melting point. This phenomenon, which can be viewed as a kind of micro scale steam engine, is studied experimentally and numerically. The latent heat of condensation transferred at the drop three phase contact line melts the substrate during a time proportional to R (the drop radius). The wetting conditions change and a spontaneous jump of the drop results in random direction over length approximately 1.5R , a phenomenon that increases the coalescence events and accelerates the growth. Once properly rescaled by the jump length scale, the growth dynamics is, however, similar to that on a solid surface.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics, University of Navarra, 31080 Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Narhe
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Khandkar
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Shelke
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Limaye
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Beysens