Study of breakup mechanisms in cavity flow

Abstract Drop breakup mechanisms inside a cavity flow are presented for two immiscible fluids. Due to the nonuniform flow condition of the cavity, the breakup mechanism varied along the streamlines. The streamlines were characterized by stream zones A and B, where zone A possessed a methodical transient breakup governed by Tomotika's breakup via capillary instabilities, and the breakup mechanism of stream zone B consisted of tip streaming breakup, an inefficient breakup mechanism. The flow behavior near flight region had a significant role in the drop breakup mechanisms. The study of the evolution of drop dispersion showed that the matrix viscosity is critical in controlling the transient breakup process and that the shear rate increase had little or no effect on the drop breakup.