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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Acoust.
Sec. Acoustofluidics
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/facou.2025.1544464
This article is part of the Research Topic Insights in Acoustofluidics: 2024 View all 3 articles
Sorting Droplets Beyond the Rayleigh limit under Acoustic-Gravity Forces: A Theoretical approach
Provisionally accepted
Jeyapradhap Thirisangu 
Karthick S *- Indian Institute of Information Technology Design & Manufacturing Kancheepuram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
The physics of droplets beyond the Rayleigh limit offers a novel acoustic sorting method that is fundamentally different from the techniques applied to sort droplets within the Rayleigh limit. Using this "acoustic sorting beyond Rayleigh limit" method, we theoretically demonstrate that by controlling the frequency (f ) and acoustic energy density (E ac ), smaller droplets can be suspended while larger ones settle against gravity, or larger droplets can be suspended while smaller ones settle. Intriguingly, this method also enables the suspension of intermediate-sized droplets, allowing both smaller and larger droplets to settle simultaneously. Furthermore, acoustic sorting is demonstrated for droplets of identical size but with varying interfacial tensions.
Keywords: Droplet sorting, Acoustics, gravity, beyond the Rayleigh limit, Droplet splitting
Received: 12 Dec 2024; Accepted: 04 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Thirisangu and S. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Karthick S, Indian Institute of Information Technology Design & Manufacturing Kancheepuram, Chennai, 600 127, Tamil Nadu, India
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