Experimental verification of the additivity between the barrel droplet's drag force and the fiber number.

Research on the single fiber scale has an essential application value in the coalescence field. The study of the droplets' behavior on the fiber junctions can provide support data for optimizing the coalescer's drainage performance on the macroscopic scale. However, relevant research focusing on the force change of droplets during the transition from a single fiber to multifiber is relatively scarce. The droplet migration platform was built using the Lavision particle image velocimetry system, which can observe the behavior of droplets on fibers. The force and fiber number relationship were analyzed when the droplets were separated from the fiber junctions. Two detachment modes were observed during separation. Furthermore, the drag force satisfied the additivity theorem by increasing the number of fibers under the same detachment mode. In addition, the minimum Reynolds number prediction model was established under two separation forms, which had good prediction compared to the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]