Abstract
A solid object impacting on liquid creates a liquid jet due to the collapse of the impact cavity. Using visualization experiments with smoke particles and multiscale simulations, we show that in addition, a high-speed air jet is pushed out of the cavity. Despite an impact velocity of only , this air jet attains supersonic speeds already when the cavity is slightly larger than 1 mm in diameter. The structure of the air flow closely resembles that of compressible flow through a nozzle—with the key difference that here the “nozzle” is a liquid cavity shrinking rapidly in time.
- Received 17 September 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.024501
©2010 American Physical Society
Viewpoint
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