Home – Home – Jornals – Thermophysics and Aeromechanics 2015 number 3

The algorithms of solution to the Young–Laplace equation, describing the shape of an axisymmetric droplet on a flat horizontal surface, with various ways of setting the initial data and geometric parameters of a droplet, were derived and tested. Analysis of the Young–Laplace equation showed that a family of curves that form the droplet surface is the single-parametric one with the accuracy of up to the scale factor, whose role is played by the capillary length, and the contact angle determines the curve turn at a contact point, but it does not affect the shape of the curve. The main natural parameter defining the family of the forming curve is the curvature at the droplet top. The droplet shape is uniquely determined by three independent geometric parameters. This fact allows us to calculate the physical properties, such as the capillary length and contact angle, measuring three independent values: height, droplet diameter, and diameter of the droplet base or the area of the axial cross section of the droplet or its volume.