Free-surface entrainment into a rimming flow containing surfactants

We study experimentally the free-surface entrainment of tubes into a steady rimming flow formed inside a partially filled horizontally rotating cylinder. The liquid consists of a glycerin–water mixture containing surfactants (fatty acids). The phenomenon does not occur without the surfactants and the details are sensitive to their concentration. The entrainment of numerous closely spaced air tubes and/or surfactant columns can start intermittently along a two-dimensional stagnation line, but is usually associated with the appearance of an axially periodic vortex structure, the so-called shark teeth, which fixes the spanwise location of these tubes. The number of tubes is governed by the three-dimensional shape of the free surface, reducing from more than 10 to only two in each trough, as the rotation rate is increased. The tubes vary in diameter from 10–30 μm and can extend hundreds of diameters into the liquid layer before breaking up into a continuous stream of bubbles and/or drops. The tubes are driven through the stagnation line by the strong viscous shear and are stretched in the downstream direction. The entrainment starts when the Capillary number $Ca=μωR/σ≃0.4.$