Coalescence of two droplets impacting a solid surface

Coalescence of a falling droplet with a stationary sessile droplet is studied experimentally. High-speed video images are presented to show coalescence dynamics, shape evolution and contact line movement. Emphasis is put on spread length, which is the length of two coalesced droplets along their original centers. Experimental results have shown that the spread length can be larger or smaller than the ideal spread length, which is the spread diameter of individual droplet plus the center-to-center distance between the two droplets. Three different coalescence mechanisms based on comparing the maximum and the minimum spread lengths to the ideal spread length are identified. Correlations for the maximum and the minimum spread lengths are developed, which can be combined with the coalescence domains to determine the deposition conditions for forming continuous or discontinuous lines.