Droplets with Slippery Interfaces

Physical systems such as surfactant laden-droplets or those with polymeric interfaces exhibit interfacial slip at the multiphase fluid interface. This slip can dramatically alter the dynamics of these systems in the presence of fluid flow. In this work, the dynamics of such a system are numerically investigated via a novel mixed continuous/discontinuous fluid model, whereby material properties are assumed to smoothly change across the interface while the fluid velocity is discontinuous. After a brief discussion of the numerical methods involved, including the full coupling between the fluid velocity and the velocity slip, the influence of interfacial slip on the resulting dynamics, including droplet breakup, will be explored and compared to available experiments.