Breakup mechanism of the electrically induced conical liquid bridge

The breakup mechanism of a conical liquid bridge is reported based on the previously proposed electrostatic liquid loading method. The breakup criterion in terms of interface feature size is derived. Based on the criterion, the breakup mechanism can be categorized as either spontaneous breakup or stretching breakup. The evolution of interface and velocity for two breakup behaviors is subsequently investigated. For the spontaneous breakup, the remnant volume V-d depends primarily on the top radius R-t and is proportional to the square of R-t. For the stretching breakup, the remnant volume depends on the early stage of the stretching, and V-d is proportional to the cube of R-t. In addition, the influence of the stretching velocity U is examined. Results show that U has a weaker effect on the change of remnant volume than the top radius R-t for large capillary numbers. This study is helpful in understanding the liquid bridge breakup mechanism and improving the transfer printing process. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.