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In the field of acoustic suspension or levitation of droplets against gravity, the application of Gorkov's acoustic radiation force for small particles (within the Rayleigh limit) or its extensions to larger ones (beyond the Rayleigh limit) is limited to predicting the suspension position of the droplet. Since this approach treats the droplet as a rigid particle, it fails to capture the fluid dynamics of the droplet and is also unsuitable for studying interfacial phenomena such as droplet deformation, splitting, or coalescence. In this work, we employ our recently developed acoustic body force in Eulerian form, which models the droplet as a fluid, to theoretically investigate the suspension dynamics of droplet subjected to standing waves through the interaction between acoustic, interfacial, and gravitational forces. Our theory predicts that when interfacial forces are dominant, the presence of positive and negative acoustic force regions within droplets exceeding the Rayleigh limit reduces the net acoustic force counteracting gravity. As a result, the suspension dynamics become highly dependent on droplet size, in contrast to droplets within the Rayleigh limit, where the dynamics remain size-independent. Thus, beyond the Rayleigh limit, as the droplet size to wavelength ratio increases, the critical acoustic energy density ($E_{cr}$) required to suspend the droplet initially rises sharply, which agrees with recent experimental results. After $E_{cr}$ reaches a local maximum at $d/\lambda \approx 0.65$, it exhibits a pattern of alternating decreases and increases, with each successive peak surpassing the previous one. Remarkably, our study reveals a size-dependent shifting of the suspension position between nodes and antinodes for droplets beyond the Rayleigh limit, whereas droplets within this limit maintain a consistent suspension position regardless of size.

We present a comprehensive theoretical framework governing the dynamics of droplets in acoustic fields, applicable to all droplet sizes, from the Rayleigh limit (D<

In this work, we experimentally investigate the suspension behavior of droplets subjected to standing acoustic waves. We focus on the droplet sizes beyond the Rayleigh limit, i.e., when the droplet size is comparable to the wavelength of the acoustic wave. We show that an acoustic field can disrupt the uniform motion of aqueous droplets in oil and cause them to either suspend or settle, depending on the interplay between acoustic and gravity forces. Remarkably, in contrast to droplets within the Rayleigh limit, the critical acoustic power or minimum pressure amplitude required to suspend droplets beyond the Rayleigh limit is dependent on droplet size. As the droplet size increases, the critical acosutic power increases significantly. Building upon this understanding, a novel sorting method is proposed based on critical acoustic power.