Retraction dynamics of aquous drops upon impact on nonwetting surfaces

Abstract

We study the impact and subsequent retraction dynamics of liquid droplets upon high-speed impact on hydrophobic surfaces. Performing extensive experiments, we show that the drop retraction rate is a material constant and does not depend on the impact velocity. We show that when increasing the Ohnesorge number, $\Oh=\eta/\sqrt{\rho R_{\rm I} \gamma}$, the retraction, i.e. dewetting, dynamics crosses over from a capillaro-inertial regime to a capillaro-viscous regime. We rationalize the experimental observations by a simple but robust semi-quantitative model for the solid-liquid contact line dynamics inspired by the standard theories for thin film dewetting.