Experimental study of drop deformation and breakup in shear flow

The behavior of single drop immersed in immiscible matrix subjected to a simple shear flow was investigated. The approach taken here is to visually follow the deformation and breakup of drop in transparent Couette flow cell using video optical technique. From experimentally observations, the mechanisms of drop breakup depend on capillary number and the viscosity ratio; the breakup occurred by three mechanisms, namely, necking, end pinching, and capillary instability. The results show the relations of the capillary thread radius and the dimensionless wavelength with the shear rate and the initial drop size.