Instabilities of drops detaching from a circular capillary tip

When drops are formed at circular capillaries at high liquid flow rates, the relation between surface tension and drop volume is often not linear but shows irregularities. These volume bifurcations and other more complex pattern of detaching drops for pure liquids depend on the bulk viscosity and the surface tension. In this study, it has been shown that liquids with high surface tensions and low viscosities, such as pure water, show complex pattern of drop times. When the surface tensions are much lower, such as for pure ethanol, and the bulk viscosity is high enough, such as for water:glycerol mixtures with a glycerol content of 75% and more, the bifurcations decrease or disappear.