The breakup of a laminar liquid jet is the underling phenomena used to generate emulsions in micro-scale devices. Jet breakup is induced by the most unstable disturbance growing on the jet surface, and linear instability analysis can be utilised to predict the resultant droplet size. Previously, instability analysis has been applied to stationary jets at intermediate Re only. This study investigates the influence of the jet velocity on the jet breakup at low Re number. The breakup of moving liquid jets were monitored using a high speed camera. The jet diameter, jet breakup length and resultant droplet sizes were strongly influenced by jet velocity. In addition to a simplified solution, a linear analysis for a moving jet was developed to determine the resultant droplet size. It was found that the full analysis is required to correctly predict the droplet size at low Re number.
Chemeca2008. Chemeca2008: Towards a Sustainable Australasia (Newcastle, N.S.W. 28 September - 1 October, 2008) p. 1087-1095