Growth of Breath Figures

✍ Scribed by Beysens, D.; Knobler, C. M.

• Book ID: 126075893
• Publisher: The American Physical Society
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 396 KB
• Volume: 57
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.57.1433

✦ Synopsis

Measurements are reported of the growth of breath figures, the patterns that form when a vapor is condensed onto a cold surface. The pattern for water on glass was studied by direct observation and light scattering as a function of the contact angle 8, flux F, degree of supersaturation 5 T, and time t. %hen 8 =0', a uniform layer forms whose thickness grows as t at constant Fand 5 T. For 0 =90' droplets are formed; at constant F and 5 T the radius of an isolated droplet grows as l 's, but as a result of coa1escences the average droplet radius grows as 8 7s. The growth process is self- similarcoalescences simply rescale the distances and leave the basic droplet pattern unaltered.