Deformation of a droplet in a particulate shear flow

A numerical simulation using a distributed-Lagrange-multiplier-based computational method is conducted in order to investigate the deformation and breakup of a droplet in a particulate shear flow. A level-set method is used to track the interface and model the surface tension. The results show that the presence of particles leads to larger droplet deformation and a perforation in the center of the droplet. It is found that the critical Stokes number above which a perforation occurs increases linearly with the inverse of the capillary number and viscosity ratio. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3205446