Falling stream of water > individual droplets

[ab500]

Hi,

I'm looking at finding a way to determine when a stream of water of a certian diameter coming from a hole at a certian pressure will break apart due to gravity and surface tension into discrete droplets.

Bernoulli's principle can give me the diameter of the stream at various times but I don't know what exactly governs the breaking apart of the stream into droplets.

Any help?

 

[Mapes]

Look into "Rayleigh instability."

 

[Andy Resnick]

This problem (jet dynamics) is very old, and a definitive presentation is in Chandrasekhar's book "hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic stability" (Dover). Surface tension drives the jet breakup.