Singularities in droplet pinching with vanishing viscosity

Abstract

A slender-jet model for the pinching of a liquid column is considered in the limit of vanishing viscosity. We find the model to develop a singularity in the gradients of the local radius and the velocity at a finite thread radius, so it does not describe breakup. However, the observed steepening of the profile corresponds to experiments and simulations with fluids at low viscosity. The singularity has similarity form, which we compute analytically. The result agrees well with numerical simulations of the model equations.