Can Oil Float Completely Submerged in Water?

Abstract

Droplet formation in a system of two or more immiscible fluids is a celebrated topic of research in the fluid mechanics community. In this work, we propose an innovative phenomenon where oil when injected drop-wise into a pool of water moves towards the air-water interface where it floats in a fully submerged condition. The configuration, however, is not stable and a slight perturbation to the system causes the droplet to burst and float in partially submerged condition. The droplet contour is analyzed using edge detection. Temporal variation of a characteristic length of the droplet is analyzed using MATLAB image processing. The constraint of small Bond Number established the assumption of lubrication regime in the thin gap. A brief theoretical formulation also showed the temporal variation of the gap thickness