Droplet formation by induced jet decay in jets exiting flow channels

The production of monodisperse droplets from flow channels could drastically expand the potential uses of induced jet decay technologies. However, since previous work primarily focused on jets formed from vertical capillaries, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the transferability of the governing principles to flow channels. An experimental investigation of jet decay for low-velocity jets originating from semicircular flow channels at varying inclination angles was performed. The droplet sizes and patterns were evaluated using image analysis alongside a recently published categorization method and compared with literature values for jets exiting vertical capillaries. Uniform and controlled droplet formation was possible with calculated dimensionless wavenumbers comparable to literature values for all employed experimental configurations. This indicates validity of the hypothesized equation transferability from vertical capillaries to angled flow channels. For the resulting droplet chains, a region of constant median diameter values was observed which could be correlated to the dimensionless volume flow rate.