Aerodynamic bag breakup of a polymeric droplet

When liquid droplets encounter high-speed gas flows, they fragment through various modes, with bag-mediated breakup mode observed at lower Weber numbers. This study shows that even minute concentrations of long-chain polymer molecules in a Newtonian solvent can drastically modify its fragmentation characteristics. By investigating the role of liquid elasticity, we uncover how polymeric additives control the fragmentation dynamics of a droplet specifically in the bag breakup regime.