Molecular dynamics simulation of the coalescence of surfactant-laden droplets
S. Arbabi, Piotr Deuar, Mateusz Denys, Rachid Bennacer, Zhizhao Che, Panagiotis E. Theodorakis
Abstract
a single pinch due to aggregation of surface surfactant, and its remnants tend to become engulfed in part inside the forming bridge. Across the board we confirm the existence of an initial thermal regime with constant bridge width followed by a later inertial regime with bridge width scaling roughly as the square root of time, but see no evidence of an intermediate viscous regime. Coalescence becomes slower as surfactant concentration grows, and we see evidence of the appearance of a further slowdown of a different nature for several times the critical concentration. We anticipate that our results provide further insights in the mechanisms of coalescence of surfactant-laden droplets.