Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 86 (2017) 149–159

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Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/etfs

Dynamics of monodisperse micrometre-sized metal droplets at low non-

dimensional wavenumbers
Alexander F.R. Sanders ⇑, Mario Nakhle dit el Ghorr, Reza S. Abhari
Lab for Energy Conversion, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This work studies the break-up process of a jet into droplets at low non-dimensional wavenumbers. The
Received 1 September 2016 work is based on a novel droplet generator suitable for high temperature fluids including molten metals
Received in revised form 15 March 2017 employing a piston resonant structure capable of generating high amplitude pressure excitations in the
Accepted 19 March 2017
fluid medium. The relation between the excitation strength and the resulting jet break-up characteristics
such as break-up length and in particular the temporal stability of the resulting droplet stream is studied.
It is found that a given minimum excitation voltage is required for uniform droplet generation and that
Keywords:
the temporal stability ameliorates further with increasing excitation levels. This analysis is comple-
Droplet generator
Monodisperse droplet stream
mented with in situ measurements of the generated pressure excitation signal in a molten metal. It is
Molten metal droplets shown that the novel droplet generator can produce a continuous monodisperse stream of
Droplets for EUV sources micrometre-sized molten tin droplets at low non-dimensional wavenumber of ’0.12. This work is of par-
Temporal droplet stream stability ticular importance for Laser Plasma produced (LPP) Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) light sources, which
Jet break-up at low non-dimensional require a highly stable stream of monodisperse micrometre-sized molten tin droplets as well as for 3D
wavenumber metal printing.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction excitation. This work, however, focuses on extending the achiev-

The break-up of a jet into stable uniform droplets with low tem-
poral timing variation employing external excitation mechanisms
has been a major focus of research for many decades. Similarly,
the generation of high temperature molten metal droplets in the
micrometre range has attracted high research interest and is a
common challenge found in various modern technologies such as
soldering of circuit boards [1], rapid prototyping [2] and in partic-
ular regarding EUV light sources [3–5]. Particularly from a fluid
science perspective the generation of molten metal droplets for
EUV sources poses a highly interesting research problem in that
uniform jet break-up is required in a low non-dimensional

wavenumber regime (k < 0:3). This regime is generally associated
with unstable jet break-up due to the small growth rate of the exci-
tation signal in this range [3,6]. Methods such as droplet-merging
[7] circumvent this problem by exciting the jet with a modulated
waveform resulting in droplet merging and in a droplet stream
exhibiting a lower non-dimensional wavenumber than the initial
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sanders@lec.mavt.ethz.ch (A.F.R. Sanders), namario@student.
ethz.ch (M. Nakhle dit el Ghorr), rabhari@lec.mavt.ethz.ch (R.S. Abhari).
able range of uniform droplet formation with a non-modulated
waveform signal and discusses the requirements thereof.
The work is based on the droplet generator shown in Fig. 1,
which is novel in that its actuation system is based on a piston res-
onant structure forming a standing wave at resonant frequency f 0 .
This is shown in Fig. 2, where the piston tip and backing mass
attachment form points of maximum displacement, while the
flange and the lower step change form points of minimum dis-
placement. The objective of this resonant actuation system is to
maximise the strength of the generated acoustic pressure waves
in the liquid medium exciting the jet in an attempt to achieve
stable droplet generation even at low non-dimensional wavenum-
bers. The droplet generator is explained in detail in Section 3.1. The
design of the droplet dispenser was filed for priority application
(EP16169161) and will soon be submitted for patent application.
Most quantitative assessments of the droplet stream stability
only refer to the non-dimensional wavenumber and omit the influ-
ence of the excitation strength [9–11]. Though studies exist on how
the break-up is influenced by the excitation strength of the exter-
nal actuation mechanism, often only the influence on the break-up
length is analysed [12,13] or only qualitative statements on the
influence on the break-up stability are made [14,13]. Only one

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2017.03.024
0894-1777/Ó 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
150 A.F.R. Sanders et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 86 (2017) 149–159

Nomenclature

Symbols c speed of sound in liquid (m s1)

k

non-dimensional wavenumber = 2pa=k (dimensionless) z0 specific acoustic impedance = qc ¼ p0 =u (kg m2 s1)
a unperturbed jet radius (m) V voltage applied to actuator (kg m2 A1 s3)
k wavelength of excitation (m) V0 critical voltage at f 0 at which transition from low to
v jet velocity (m s1) high temporal stability occurs (kg m2 A1 s3)
f excitation frequency (s1) tb break-up time (s)
f0 resonant frequency (s1) Dh initial perturbation (m)
c growth rate of disturbance (s1) c maximum possible growth rate of disturbance (s1)
q density of liquid (kg m3) lb break-up length (m)
rs surface tension (N m1) k1 constant (dimensionless)
l dynamic viscosity (kg m1 s1) k2 a/k1 (dimensionless)
In nth element of 1st Bessel function (dimensionless) R2 coefficient of determination, indicating amount of vari-
Kn nth element of 2nd Bessel function (dimensionless) ance in data explained through regression model
g gravitational acceleration 2
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (9.81 m s ) Dt time period between subsequent droplets
Fr Froude number = v/ g lb (dimensionless) r standard deviation
p0 amplitude of induced pressure signal (Pa, kg m1 s2) l mean value Timing jitter = rðDt 1;...;n Þ/ lðDt 1;...;n Þ (dimen-
u displacement velocity of piston tip (m s1) sionless)

account is found describing the requirement of a minimum excita-
tion amplitude for uniform droplet break-up and showing quanti-
tatively how this minimum excitation amplitude changes with the
non-dimensional wavenumber [15]. However, to the author’s
knowledge the current literature does not provide any quantitative
measurements of how the temporal stability of the droplet stream
is influenced by the excitation amplitude.
This paper analyses how the break-up characteristics and in
particular the resulting temporal stability are affected by the exci-
tation voltage both using high resolution images of the break-up
region as well as precise measurements of the temporal stability
with a laser-diode system. This analysis is complemented with
time-resolved measurements of the acoustic excitation signal gen-
erated in the liquid by the resonant excitation system giving a
Backing mass
attachment / actuator
Cover
holistic assessment of how the break-up characteristics are related
to the acoustic excitation signal. Conclusions are drawn about the
requirements for uniform droplet generation at low non-
dimensional wavenumbers and how elevated excitation ampli-
tudes influence various jet break-up phenomena.
2. Background
2.1. Theory of droplet break-up and motivation
Break-up of a jet into droplets is generally based on the growth
of disturbances due to considerations of surface tension and sur-
face energy minimisation [16,17]. Break-up occurs when the dis-
turbance has grown to equal the jet radius. Fig. 3 shows the very
similar dispersion curves (growth rate c versus the non-

dimensional wavenumber k ) both for including and neglecting
viscous effects of tin [18,19] and shows clearly the strong decrease
 
in growth rate of the low k regime of k < 0:3 analysed in this

paper compared to the maximum at k  0:7. The non-
dimensional wavenumber is defined as (a being the jet radius, k
and f the wavelength and the frequency of the excitation respec-
tively and v the jet velocity):

Pressurised  2pa 2paf

k ¼ ¼ ð1Þ
gas
k v

Piston

Molten Flange
Longitudinal Curve indicating
displacement longitudinal
metal
displacement
Heater Nodal point
Piston

Reservoir
Piston
Nodal point / tip
Step change
Backing mass
attachment /
actuator
Nozzle
Fig. 2. Resonant actuation system showing the longitudinal displacement at
resonant frequency f 0 . The piezoelectric actuator is placed on outside of high
Fig. 1. Novel droplet dispenser design, EP16169161 [8]. pressure and temperature reservoir.
 A.F.R. Sanders et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 86 (2017) 149–159
Dispersion curve tin
1 non-viscous
viscous
0.8
Growth Rate (norm.)
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Non-dimensional Wavenumber k*
Fig. 3. Viscous and non-viscous dispersion relation for tin.
The reason for the occurrence of droplet jitter is related to
small variations in the curvature of the ligament and swelling
drop just before break-up occurs due to non-linear effects becom-
ing dominant as well as due to the presence of noise sources
[11,13]. This results in variations in the momentum exchange
between droplet and ligament [16] and thus to ‘unpredictable
speed fluctuations connected with the break-up process’ [20].
These timely variations in droplet spacing have been shown to
be smallest at the maximum of the dispersion relation
[11,16,20], where fast growth of the principal disturbance close

to the optimal k value can suppress any interfering disturbances
[11,21]. Several authors have shown experimentally that there

exists a limited range around the optimum k value of roughly
 tromagnetic pinch force mechanisms) are presented in the avail-
k = 0.3–0.97, over which stable droplet formation occurs
[10,11,22]. This limited operating range can be explained by the
relative exponential increase in the detrimental influence of the
noise source on the break-up process when moving away from
 range [2,31,32].
the optimal k value.
However, many of the above mentioned studies do not take
the effect of the excitation amplitude into account. High initial
amplitudes of the principal excitation should facilitate achieving
stable droplet break-up even if the principal disturbance is at

low k values. Yoshida, for example, shows that the excitation
amplitude needs to be increased for uniform droplet generation

at k values larger or smaller than the optimal value [15]. This
is also found by Rollinger numerically [3]. Amplitude modulated
excitations disturbing the jet have also been shown to improve
the achievable temporal stability of the resulting droplet stream
and to extend in particular the lower range of attainable
wavenumbers for uniform droplet generation [9,11]. This paper,
however, focuses solely on the improvement of the temporal
droplet stream stability via the maximisation of the acoustic
pressure strength of the excitation signal. Effectively, the goal
is to achieve a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regarding the
respective initial amplitudes such that even if the noise sources
have a more favourable growth rate the principal disturbance
remains being the dominant influence on the jet. This effect
has not been studied in detail in the literature yet. The effect
of gravity on the break-up can be neglected for the current study,
as the Froude number representing the ratio of inertial to gravi-
tational forces, evaluated using the break-up length of the jet is
Fr J 2400 [23].
151
2.2. Importance of stable droplet stream at low  values for EUV
sources
EUV radiation centred at 13.5 nm is the main candidate for the
next generation semiconductor lithography process as it offers
higher resolution capabilities and smaller semiconductor pattern
sizes than currently achievable with 193 nm immersion lithogra-
phy. It also offers high resolution microscopy applications
[24,25]. Fig. 4 shows an EUV light source employed to generate
EUV radiation. It consists of a vacuum chamber equipped with a
droplet dispenser and EUV radiation is generated by a laser-
produced plasma (LPP) that is obtained by irradiating
micrometre-sized tin droplets with a high power (1 kW) laser
[26]. An EUV collector is then used to focus the EUV radiation onto
the intermediate focus, where various devices can be installed to
utilise the EUV radiation. The instability of this EUV radiation is
directly linked to the instability of the droplet stream and a high
1 pulse-to-pulse stability of the EUV radiation is of utmost impor-
tance particularly for the above stated applications [27,28]. The
industry requirement is often stated with an integrated EUV
energy stability of 3r, 0.2% over 50 EUV pulses [4]. In particular
for reasons of droplet debris reduction which increases the opera-
tion lifetime of the EUV collector of the source the usage of tin dro-
plets with very small diameters (10 lm) is envisaged [4]. Further,
high droplet velocities are desirable to achieve a sufficiently large
droplet separation distance in order to avoid interaction of the
expanding plasma with the subsequent droplet. The small droplet
diameter together with the high droplet velocities imply very small
wavenumbers, at which stable droplet formation is required and
serves as a motivation for the novel droplet dispenser and the stud-
ies in this paper.
2.3. Methods for droplet generation
While several designs specifically suited to the generation of
molten micrometre-sized metal droplets (e.g. pneumatic or elec-
able literature, very few of them allow the generation of a highly
temporally stable droplet stream [29,30] and in particular not at
low non-dimensional wavenumbers or frequencies in the kHz
Various designs based on a piston structure are presented in the
literature, where the piston provides a spatial separation and tem-
perature barrier between the actuator and the hot molten metal.
Piston based excitation system are designed both for drop-on-
demand (DoD) droplet break-up [33,34] as well as for continuous
droplet break-up [35]. While the DoD systems exhibit low droplet
speeds and frequencies with the achievable temporal stability of
Droplet
dispenser
Vacuum
chamber Intermediate
focus
EUV
Drive laser
& beamline
EUV
Collector Plasma site
Fig. 4. EUV light source.
152 A.F.R. Sanders et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 86 (2017) 149–159
the droplet stream remaining unclear [33,34], the continuous jet
break-up systems based on a piston structure and a piezoelectric
actuator are shown to generate a uniform and stable droplet
stream [4,35,36].
3. Experimental setup and method
3.1. Droplet dispenser design
The resonant structure of the presented actuation system is
shown in Fig. 2 and consists of a piston, a piezoelectric actuator
and a backing mass - the latter two are placed outside the high
temperature and pressure reservoir where it is shielded from the
heat load. The piezoelectric actuator and the backing mass are
assembled in the same way as outlined in [37,38]. The piston is
actuated on the one side by the piezoelectric actuator, while its
tip is immersed in the liquid in the fuel reservoir where it trans-
mits acoustic pressure waves into the molten metal reservoir and
onto the jet. The length scales of the backing mass, piezoelectric
actuator and piston are chosen such that at the desired resonant
frequency the actuating system forms a multiple of k=4 such that
a standing wave is formed. This is shown in Fig. 2, where the flange
and the step change form a nodal point of maximum stress but
minimum displacement. At the same time both the end of the
backing mass and the piston tip represent points of maximum dis-
placement, with the piston tip having a higher displacement than
the backing mass due to the change in cross-sectional area of the
piston at the lower nodal point [37]. On the basis of this resonant
structure, it is aimed to maximise the strength of the generated
acoustic pressure waves with the presented design.
3.2. Droplet measurements
The droplet dispenser is placed in a vacuum chamber shown in
Fig. 5, which allows the elimination of effects such as drag forces or
wind-induced phenomena when studying the jet break-up charac-
teristics. The droplet stream is captured with high resolution imag-
ing using back light illumination and a CCD camera. By varying the
vertical distance between the droplet generator and the imaging
system, images both of the break-up region and of the droplet
vacuum chamber
amplifier signal generator
piezo
press.
controller
LED control system
camera
Ar
tank
LED camera
Fig. 5. Droplet test facility showing the shadowgraphy system for imaging of the
break-up region and the droplet stream further downstream (5 cm downstream of
the nozzle).
stream ca. 5 cm further downstream can be captured. Measure-
ments of the temporal stability of the jet are conducted in a sepa-
rate vacuum chamber facility by measuring the time of flight of
each individual droplet as it passes between two laser sheets direc-
ted onto an array of diodes downstream of the nozzle (see Fig. 6) at
a similar vertical position as the downstream images are taken. As
a droplet passes through a laser sheet it creates a shadow on the
diode array, leading to a dip in the diode signal. The temporal
instability, referred to as temporal jitter (or mean jitter), of the dro-
plet stream is then computed in real time as the coefficient of vari-
ation (standard deviation rðtÞ divided by the mean lðtÞ) in the
time period Dt between subsequent minima of the diode signal
for a period of 500 ms. This allows a highly accurate computation
of the temporal instability, referred to as temporal jitter. The sys-
tem used in this study consists of two laser sheets that are sepa-
rated by a small distance along the axis of flight of the droplet
train. The system also computes the smallest standard deviation
in the time period between any two subsequent minima of the
diode signal per 500 ms, referred to as minimum jitter. The laser
diode measurement system does not take satellite droplets into
account for the computation of the temporal stability.
3.3. Pressure measurements
The strength and time signature of the generated pressure
waves was measured using a high temperature fast response pres-
sure probe developed by Rollinger et al. [39]. The probe itself was
directly attached to the dispenser just below the vibrating piston
where normally the nozzle orifice is placed. The details of the mea-
surement setup are described elsewhere [4,39]. Due to tempera-
ture limitations and reliability concerns the measurements were
conducted with indium as a target liquid, which has a specific
acoustic impedance (z0 ) only 5.6% smaller than that of tin. The
specific acoustic impedance is defined as:
p0
z0 ¼ q  c ¼ ð2Þ
u
This is important as the acoustic impedance of the material the
piston resonant structure is immersed into at its tip influences the
resonant characteristics of the actuation system in terms of damp-
ing and frequency response. Further, it was tried to keep the tem-
Droplet
Generator
t1 t2 t3
Timing Real
Jitter time
=X% analysis
Fig. 6. Laser Diode system measuring the temporal variation in the time period
between subsequent droplets Dt. The temporal jitter is calculated as the coefficient
of variation (standard deviation rðtÞ divided by the mean lðtÞ of Dt 1 ; Dt1 ; Dtn ) for a
time period of 500 ms. The figure shows the manipulated and inverted photodiode
signal created when droplets pass through the laser diode system.
 A.F.R. Sanders et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 86 (2017) 149–159
perature difference between the droplet dispenser filled with
indium and tin as small as permissible by the temperature limita-
tion of the pressure sensor. Hence, the results obtained with the
pressure measurements conducted in indium can be extrapolated
to tin. All experiments with droplets are conducted with high pur-
ity molten tin.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. High resolution break-up imaging
Fig. 7 depicts the generated droplet stream ca. 5 cm down-
stream of the nozzle and shows that stable droplet generation at

k values as small as ’0.12 is feasible and thus below the limit of
0.3 found by [6] for non-modulated excitation signals. The follow-
ing sections try to give an answer for the requirement of the stable
droplet generation at these low non-dimensional wavenumbers.
Particularly, the importance of the excitation amplitude is exam-
ined, combined with an analysis of the frequency content of the
pressure excitation signals.
4.2. Temporal stability versus excitation amplitude
Quantitative measurements of the temporal stability versus the
excitation voltage are conducted as shown in Fig. 8 with molten tin
and a ’24 lm diameter nozzle. Measurements are taken with two
laser-diode systems simultaneously and in real time, as shown in
(a) (b)
Fig. 7. Molten tin droplets generated at resonance frequency f 0 ; LHS: nozzle
diameter ’25 lm, low pressure level, droplet diameter ’57 lm, droplet spacing
’256 lm; RHS: nozzle diameter ’13 lm, medium pressure level, droplet diameter
’42 lm, droplet spacing ’296 lm and k ’ 0:12.

153
100
Jitter (%)
10
Mean Jitter
Min. Jitter
1
0 1 2 3 4
Excitation Voltage (V/V0)
Fig. 8. Temporal jitter level versus excitation voltage at 0.95 f 0 .
Fig. 6 and described in the experimental setup. Measurements of
the minimum and mean temporal jitter were taken at each voltage
level for an average time period of 15 s with the shortest time per-
iod being 3 s for the highest excitation voltage level. The droplet
dispenser was operated at 0.95 f 0 and data points are collected
going up and down in voltage underlining the repeatability of
the measurement.
It can be observed that the plot exhibits a sudden jump in tem-
poral stability from a low to high uniformity regime of the droplet
stream around 2.3V 0 (V 0 is the approximate voltage level at reso-
nant frequency f 0 , at which the jump from low to high temporal
stability occurs). Furthermore, it can be seen that the temporal sta-
bility ameliorates on both sides of the jump with an increase in the
excitation voltage. The smallest measured temporal instability cor-
responds to a jitter value of 1.7%. This result shows the existence
of a critical voltage below which the temporal stability of the dro-
plet stream is poor. Further, it highlights the beneficial effect of a
strong excitation signal for further improving the temporal stabil-
ity. Interestingly, this improvement can be observed both for the
low and high stability regime. Fig. 9 shows another quantitative
temporal stability series conducted at the resonant frequency f 0 .
It can be seen that the jump from low to high temporal stability
regime occurs at an approximately 2.3 times smaller voltage level
100
Mean Jitter
Min. Jitter
Jitter (%)
10
1
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Excitation Voltage (V/V0)
Fig. 9. Temporal jitter level versus excitation voltage at resonance frequency f 0 .
154 A.F.R. Sanders et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 86 (2017) 149–159
than at 0.95 f 0 . The lower voltage level is expected as for the same
pressure amplitude a smaller excitation voltage is required at res-
onant frequency and concurrently the regime change occurs at a
lower excitation voltage.
The difference between the minimum and mean computed jit-
ter is an inverse indicator for the stability and consistency of the
droplet formation process. A strong discrepancy can be observed
for values close to the regime change from low to high temporal
stability indicating the instability of the operating point associated
with this regime change. The difference between the two laser
sheets separated by a small vertical distance is likely to come from
sensitive changes in the droplet structure with the vertical distance
at this operating point.
Fig. 10 shows images of the droplet stream taken downstream
of the nozzle exit for both scenarios below and above the critical
voltage at resonant frequency f 0 , taken during another test at the
droplet test facility. It can be clearly seen that below the critical
excitation V 0 the droplet stream exhibits satellite droplets and
the droplet spacing is not always uniform, while above the critical
voltage satellite droplets are fully suppressed and the droplet spac-
ing is highly uniform. Hence, the droplet stream images corrobo-
rate the existence of a critical excitation level for a mono-
disperse droplet stream observed in the quantitative stability mea-
surements in Figs. 8 and 9. Further, according to Fig. 10 this critical
voltage level is between 0.67V 0 and 1.33V 0 , and thus in good
agreement with the critical excitation range from the quantitative
temporal stability measurements at resonant frequency f 0 (see
Fig. 9). The observation of a required minimum excitation ampli-
tude for the generation of a uniform droplet stream fits the findings
by Yoshida [15].
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 10. Molten tin droplets downstream of a ’24 lm diameter nozzle generated at
resonance frequency f 0 ; droplet diameter ’65 lm, droplet spacing ’465 lm,

droplet velocity ’10.3 m/s, k ’ 0:14; (a) and (b) at 0.67V 0 (below critical
excitation), (c) at 1.33V 0 (above critical excitation).
High resolution shadowgraphy images of the break-up process
are taken to study the effect of the excitation amplitude on the
shape and break-up process of the jet. This is shown in Fig. 11, in
which the excitation voltage of the droplet generator operating
at resonant frequency f 0 is increased successively from left to right.
While at the lowest excitation voltage the jet break-up is highly
unstable and irregular, it becomes more and more uniform with
increasing excitation voltage. Besides the break-up length succes-
sively decreasing towards higher excitation voltages as expected,
one can further observe that the formation of satellite droplets
generally gets more suppressed towards higher excitation levels,
which is in good agreement with the droplet stream images further
downstream (see Fig. 10).
Additionally, one can notice the unusual shape of the jet ema-
nating from the nozzle prior to the break-up of the jet in Fig. 11.
This does not resemble classical Rayleigh break-up, which would
exhibit a continuous increase of the swell and a concurrent
decrease of the neck. Another peculiar occurrence is the non-axis
symmetric shape of the jet with respect to the longitudinal jet axis,
for which the author has not found a similar report in the litera-
ture. Section 4.6 states some possible hypotheses for this
occurrence.
The requirement of a strong excitation amplitude blends in with
the qualitative finding from Donnelly [40] that e.g. for viscous flu-

ids or for operation at non-optimal operating points (k – 0:7) the
excitation mechanism needs to be improved in order to still be able
to generate stable droplets. Also other authors conclude on the
importance of an increased excitation strength for regular droplet

break-up at k values well below or above the optimum of

k ¼ 0:7 [3,15,41,42]. This effect was further corroborated by
Dressler [14] who validated the dependence of the break-up mode
on the excitation strength. In particular, Dressler showed that for
disturbances at non-optimal parameters the perturbation would
Fig. 11. Images of jet break-up versus excitation voltage at resonant frequency f 0
and k ’ 0:14, droplet diameter ’65 lm, nozzle diameter ’24 lm (increasing

voltage from left to right: 0.17V 0 , 0.33V 0 , 0.67V 0 , 1.33V 0 , 2.0V 0 , 2.67V 0 , 3.33V 0 )
exhibiting non-axis symmetric shape (with respect to longitudinal axis).
 A.F.R. Sanders et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 86 (2017) 149–159 155

decay at low excitation values while at higher excitation values

they grow and lead to droplet break-up of the jet. This is similar
to the minimum required excitation voltage threshold for stable
jet break-up observed in the presented experiments.

4.3. Break-up length versus excitation amplitude

In a next step the relation between the break-up length and the
excitation strength is examined, particularly towards whether it
exhibits an unexpected behaviour around the critical excitation
voltage. This analysis is greatly facilitated by the observation that
the strength of the generated pressure waves follows a linear trend
(R2 of 0.97) with respect to the applied excitation voltage as shown
in Fig. 12 (R2 is the coefficient of determination and indicates the
amount of variance in the data that can be explained by the linear
model). A more detailed analysis of the pressure signal induced in
the molten metal (including the analysis of higher orders) is con-
ducted in Section 4.5.
Fig. 13. Break-up length versus excitation voltage at resonant frequency f 0 .
The dependence of the break-up length and break-up time on
the excitation voltage can be found in numerous reports both
experimentally [13,30,43] and numerically [44,45]. Several authors c tb
a ¼ Dhe ð3Þ
confirm the logarithmic relation between the break-up length and
the amplitude of the initial disturbance as predicted by linear the- For a constant jet velocity v ; v t b ¼ lb is satisfied and it follows [49]:
ory [13,43,46]. In addition, Donnelly and Glaberson find an expo- v a
lb ¼ ln ð4Þ
nential relationship between the distance of neighbouring radii c
 Dh
on the jet contour and the break-up time [40] also matching the
predictions of linear theory. It needs to be noted that most of these Considering the difference in break-up length for different exci-
experiments were conducted close to the maximum growth rate tation amplitudes, the following relationship between lb and Dh is
and for small perturbations, for which linear theory is applicable found [48,50]:
opposed to large disturbances [47]. Linear theory is derived on c
lnDh1  lnDh2 ¼  ðlb;1  lb;2 Þ ð5Þ
the assumption that the initial perturbation was infinitesimal v
small and provides no energy for the jet breakup [14], while with
the given setup it is specifically aimed to generate large perturba- Based on the linear correlation between the applied excitation volt-
tions and supply energy for the jet breakup. Nevertheless, a com- age and the generated pressure wave strength (see Fig. 12), it fol-
parison is made between the measured relation of break-up lows that [48]:
length to excitation strength with the presented setup (see Dh ¼ k 1 V ð6Þ
Fig. 13) and the one predicted by linear theory.
Linear theory predicts an exponential growth of the initial per- Hence, the break-up length can be formulated in terms of the exci-
tation voltage (suspending the condition of c to be at its maximum;
turbation Dh, and once it equals the jet radius a, breakup occurs
after time t ¼ t b (with c being the maximum growth rate of the k2 ¼ a=k1 ) [51]:
dispersion curve, [48,49]): v
lb ¼ ½lnðk2 Þ  lnðVÞ ð7Þ
c
Fig. 13 shows the break-up length versus the logarithmic exci-
tation strength for the presented droplet dispenser with a small
1.2
selection of the corresponding jet break-up images shown in
Fig. 11. The break-up length is defined as the point where the main
Pressure (bar, ptp, norm.)

1 ligament detaches from the jet, and not where a satellite droplet
breaks off in front of the main droplet (only the case for low volt-
ages - see Fig. 15b). The standard deviation in the measurement of
0.8 the break-up length at each voltage level is only between 2 and 6%
as shown by the small size of the error bars in Fig. 13. The plot fol-
0.6 lows a straight line perfectly up to an excitation voltage of 2V 0 as
predicted by the linear theory Eq. (5) with a high R2 of 0.99958.
This result is surprising as the high resolution break-up images
0.4 shown in Fig. 11 do not resemble the classical Rayleigh break-up
even for lower excitation voltages. Furthermore, it is surprising
0.2 to notice that even at low excitation amplitudes the relationship
of break-up length versus perturbation strength is not disturbed
by a relatively higher influence of noise. Interestingly, the change
0 from unstable to stable break-up regime between 0.67V 0 and
0 2 4 6 8 1.33V 0 is not reflected in the break-up length versus voltage curve.
Piezo Voltage (V/V0) Beyond 2V 0 a deviation from the exponential relation can be
observed, and the rate of decrease of the break-up length with an
Fig. 12. Pressure level measured in molten indium with respect to excitation increase in the excitation amplitude falls below the prediction by
voltage. linear theory. Fig. 14 shows the growth rate versus the excitation
156 A.F.R. Sanders et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 86 (2017) 149–159

1.2

1
Growth rate (norm.)

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 1 2 3 4
Piezo Voltage (V/V0)
(a) Break-up series at 3.33V0 at resonant frequency f0 (above
Fig. 14. Growth rate based on linear model versus excitation voltage. critical excitation amplitude)

voltage, calculated in a similar approach to Lopez and Crane

[48,50] employing Eq. (7) and using the gradient and intercept of
the linear fit. As expected, the growth rate falls significantly for
the measurement points beyond the threshold excitation voltage
of 2V 0 as shown in Fig. 14. In Section 4.5 FFT spectra of the mea-
sured pressure signal are presented, indicating that this deviation
is purely due to the increase in the amplitude level.
A deviation from the exponential relation towards higher exci-
tation levels is also found by Kalaaji et al. and Cline and Anthony
[49,52]. Cline and Anthony estimate that the initial vibration
amplitude corresponding to the lowest excitation amplitude that
deviates from the linear theory is about 10% of the jet radius,
though no further mention about the estimation procedure is made
[52]. Employing the linear model described in Eq. (6) and fitting it
to the data points corresponding to the linear theory, it is found (b) Break-up series at 0.67V0 at resonant frequency f0 (below
that for the presented data the first data point deviating from the
critical excitation amplitude)
linear model occurs at an initial perturbation corresponding to
8.8% of the jet radius, while the last data point still matching the Fig. 15. Break-up series using phase lock technique; nozzle diameter ’24 lm,
linear model corresponds to 6.6% of the jet radius. Assuming that droplet diameter ’65 lm.
Cline and Anthony [52] employed the same break-up model and
considering potentially unknown effects of the fluid such as viscos-
breaks up first before the main droplet forming a satellite droplet,
ity on the occurrence of this non-linear behaviour a difference of
which eventually merges into the main droplet (rear-merging).
1.2% is a very good match.
This fits in with findings of Pimbley and Lee as well as of Vassallo
and Ashgriz [13,53] who observe rear-merging satellite droplets at
4.4. Forward and rear-merging satellite droplets low excitation amplitudes, forward-merging satellite droplets at
high excitation amplitudes and even completely suppressed satel-
Break-up time series are shown in Figs. 15(a) and (b) for both lite formation when further increasing the excitation strength.
below and above the critical voltage level defining the regime However, similarly to the case at higher excitation levels, at low
change between low and high temporal uniformity of the droplet excitation levels in Fig. 15(b) the remainder of the main droplet
stream. These images are taken using the phase-locking technique, (after the satellite droplet had brake off in front of the main dro-
for which there is a slight mismatch in frequencies between the plet) first breaks off the jet before it then breaks further up into
imaging frequency (at around 8 Hz) and the break-up frequency. smaller droplets which eventually catch up again with the main
From these break-up time series (Figs. 15(a) and (b)) it can be droplet (forward-merging). Thus at lower excitation voltage we
observed that jet break-up at lower excitation levels occurs before observe both forward and rear-merging satellite droplets. The
a future main droplet, while at higher excitation levels it occurs downstream images of the droplet stream in Fig. 10 show, how-
behind a future main droplet. This fits in with findings by Kalaaji ever, that at 0.67V 0 the merging of the satellite droplets into the
and Pimbley [13,49]. Kalaaji states that while at low initial excita- main droplet does not occur consistently. In contrast above the
tion amplitudes ‘jet rupture first occurs behind a future main dro- critical voltage complete merging takes place and satellite droplets
plet, it occurs before at higher excitation amplitudes’ [49]. In his are suppressed consistently.
case said rupture occurs at either end of a thin thread connecting
subsequent main droplets. 4.5. Analysis of excitation signal - pressure measurements
Further, a long tail is formed at higher excitation levels, which
after the first jet rupture further breaks down into smaller droplets, Fig. 16 shows the Fast Fourier Transform of the pressure signal
which subsequently catch up with the main droplet and merge measured at different excitation amplitudes at the position of the
with it (forward-merging). At lower excitation voltages, the jet nozzle orifice. While at low excitation voltages (e.g. 0.167V 0 ), the
 A.F.R. Sanders et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 86 (2017) 149–159 157

1 break-up in Fig. 15 somewhat resembles this classical droplet

merging at lower excitation voltages (see Fig. 15(b)) it does not
0.8 at higher excitation amplitudes (see Fig. 15(a)). For higher excita-
Pressure (bar)

tion voltages, the tail behind the main droplet that breaks up into
0.6 one or two smaller satellite droplets that further down merge with
the main droplet. Despite this strong difference in the observed
0.4 pattern to classical droplet merging at higher elevation amplitudes,
the higher order components may play a role, besides the imposi-
0.2 tion of a high amplitude excitation, in enabling the observed uni-
form droplet generation at non-dimensional wavenumbers as
0 
0 1 2 3 4
low as k ’ 0:12.
Response frequency (f/f 0)
4.6. Modes of perturbation energy transfer
(a) 0.167V0 excitation voltage
1 Higher orders, however, do not explain the non-symmetric jet
shape seen in Fig. 11, for which possible hypotheses are mentioned
0.8 in this section. There are principally two modes via which the exci-
tation can be transferred from the piston into the liquid medium:
Pressure (bar)

0.6 As depicted in Fig. 17(b) through acoustic pressure waves resulting

in the classical Rayleigh break-up of the jet. On the other hand per-
0.4 turbation energy can also be transferred onto the jet through the
active displacement of the liquid as indicated in Fig. 18. The latter
0.2 is generally referred to as a drop-on-demand excitation system.
What is interesting to notice is that such drop-on-demand systems
0 often exhibit non-axisymmetric jet profiles after the nozzle exit
0 1 2 3 4
similar to the ones observed in this paper [32,54]. While for the
Response frequency (f/f0)

(b) 1.0V0 excitation voltage

Growth Rate & Pressure amplitude

0.8 Static
back-
0.6 pressure

0.4

0.2

0
0 1 2 3 4
Frequency (f/f0)

(c) 2.67V0 excitation voltage, overlaid with (a) (b)

growth rate plot Fig. 17. (a) Irregular jet break-up when only static backpressure is applied but no
excitation signal and (b) when a static backpressure is applied together with
Fig. 16. FFT plots for resonance region. acoustic pressure waves generated by the oscillating piston tip resulting in Rayleigh
break-up.

pressure signal measured in liquid indium is highly linear and fol-

lows the voltage excitation signal applied to the piezoelectric actu-
ator perfectly, it starts exhibiting higher orders at higher excitation
voltages.
Overlaying the pressure signal at 2.67V 0 with the growth rate
according to Weber, one can see that the higher frequency contri-
butions are associated with higher growth rates though smaller in
absolute amplitude. Nevertheless, this could imply that they signif-
icantly influence the break-up process. These higher order compo-
nents are also present with similar relative magnitudes in the
pressure signal at 1V 0 as shown in Fig. 16. Thus, it can be con-
cluded that the deviation of the measurement data from the expo-
nential relation between break-up length and excitation voltage
according to linear theory at voltages of 2.67V 0 or higher as shown
in Fig. 13 is only due to the elevated amplitude and not due to the
effect of the higher order components.
In the classical droplet-merging pattern described by Orme and t1 t2 t3
others [20] two or more droplets exhibit a relative velocity compo-
nent to each other and eventually merge. While the observed jet Fig. 18. Active displacement of fluid.
158 A.F.R. Sanders et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 86 (2017) 149–159
presented system the energy transfer through acoustic pressure
waves is certainly present (case of Fig. 17(b)), there might be an
additional energy transfer through the active displacement of fluid
similar to classical drop-on-demand systems that are often also
based on a piston design (case of Fig. 18) [40]. The active displace-
ment of the fluid could lead to a periodic pushing and pulling back
of the jet after having emanated from the nozzles through viscous
forces. This could hypothetically lead to asymmetries of the nozzle
orifice being translated into a non-axisymmetric jet profile via a
non-uniform velocity profile over the jet cross-section.
5. Summary and conclusion
In this work a novel actuation mechanism based on a resonating
piston structure is presented, capable of generating a stable stream

of droplets as low as k ’ 0:12 and suitable for high melting point
metals. Measurements based on an accurate laser-diode system
show that droplet timing jitter of less than 2% can be achieved with

the presented actuation system at an approximate k value of
 
k ’ 0:14 (Note: the measurement of the k value was conducted
at a different facility while running the droplet dispenser at the
same operating conditions and might therefore differ slightly). It
has been found that a minimum excitation voltage exists for the
generation of a droplet stream with a uniform droplet spacing
and the suppression of satellite droplets. Further, it is found that
the temporal stability ameliorates with increasing the excitation
voltage both in the low-uniformity and high-uniformity regime.
By roughly doubling the excitation voltage beyond the critical volt-
age V 0 a further improve of ca. 1.5% in temporal jitter can be
achieved. Thus, it is clearly shown that the strong pressure waves
generated by the resonant actuation system are beneficial in
improving the droplet stream quality.
A time-resolved analysis of the pressure signal induced in mol-
ten indium has been conducted exhibiting higher orders above a
certain voltage level inherent to the presented excitation mecha-
nism. It thus remains unclear, whether the stable regular jet
break-up can be extended towards lower non-dimensional
wavenumbers merely on the basis of a strong excitation signal or
whether the existence of higher orders is also required besides
the presence of a strong excitation strength. Despite the jet
break-up not resembling classical Rayleigh jet break-up, very good
agreement with linear theory based on the correlation between
break-up length and excitation voltage is found up to a given exci-
tation voltage beyond which it deviates. Based on the time-
resolved pressure data analysis it can be concluded that this devi-
ation is only due to the elevated excitation level and not the exis-
tence of higher orders in the excitation signal. No correlation
between this deviation and the critical voltage level between low
and high uniformity regime could be observed. Further, findings
of other authors regarding the observation of rear merging satellite
droplets at low excitation voltages and forward merging satellite
droplets at high excitation voltages could be confirmed. It is spec-
ulated that the non-axisymmetric jet profile could be related to an
active displacement of the fluid similar to the one in a drop-on-
demand system.
Funding source
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dr. Bob Rollinger for the valu-
able discussions during the design conception phase of the novel
actuation system and for the provision of the pressure sensor as
well as the ALPS group members Duane Hudgins, Markus Brandstt-
ter and Marco Weber for helpful discussions and support. The
authors would also like to thank F. Alickaj, R. Rüttimann, and T.
Künzle for the support with the electronic setup and the manufac-
turing of the droplet dispenser.
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