Characteristics of drop impact on elastic and compliant surfaces

Due to its importance and wide applications, drop impact on solid and liquid surfaces has been well studied. However, with the progress and wider applications of more sophisticated materials, the relatively less studied physical properties and behavior of a drop impact on elastic or compliant surfaces gradually become more important. Three kinds of common liquid drops impact on both elastic and compliant surfaces were studied experimentally using high-speed digital camera with regular light source at three different impact speeds. The impact effects on compliant surface and the expansion-contraction processes of impacted drops were recorded and analyzed. It is found that Mundo's criterion (K = OhRe^1.25 > 57.7 for splashing) based on rigid impact surface experiments is not applicable to elastic and compliant surfaces. However, the maximum spreading diameter is still predictable by d _max/D = 0.61(Re²Oh)^0.166 which was based on rigid impact surface experiment.