Experimental analysis of shape deformation of evaporating droplet using Legendre polynomials

•Experiments involving heating of liquid droplets which are acoustically levitated, reveal specific modes of oscillations.•Droplet shape instabilities are primarily a consequence of droplet heating and vapor pressure.•The two dominant modes reflect (a) droplet size reduction due to evaporation; (b) the deformation.•Dissipation and inter-coupling of modal energy lead to stable droplet shape.•Accumulation of modal energy leads to deformation and breakup.

Experiments involving heating of liquid droplets which are acoustically levitated, reveal specific modes of oscillations. For a given radiation flux, certain fluid droplets undergo distortion leading to catastrophic bag type breakup. The voltage of the acoustic levitator has been kept constant to operate at a nominal acoustic pressure intensity, throughout the experiments. Thus the droplet shape instabilities are primarily a consequence of droplet heating through vapor pressure, surface tension and viscosity. A novel approach is used by employing Legendre polynomials for the mode shape approximation to describe the thermally induced instabilities. The two dominant Legendre modes essentially reflect (a) the droplet size reduction due to evaporation, and (b) the deformation around the equilibrium shape. Dissipation and inter-coupling of modal energy lead to stable droplet shape while accumulation of the same ultimately results in droplet breakup.