67th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 23, 2014 — November 25, 2014)

V0015: Raindrop impact on a sandy surface

Authors Xiang Cheng, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota

Runchen Zhao, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota

Qianyun Zhang, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota

Hendro Tjugito, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota

https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2014.GFM.V0015

This set of videos shows the impact of water drops on the surface of granular particles—a phenomenon that is likely familiar to all of us who have watched raindrops splashing in a backyard or on a beach. The high-speed photography reveals the detailed liquid-drop impact dynamics at various impact velocities. Such information allows us to construct a simple model for describing the morphology of raindrop imprints in a granular bed. Surprisingly, we found that liquid-drop impact cratering follows the same energy scaling and reproduces the same crater morphology as that of catastrophic asteroid impact cratering.

Physics of Fluids summary