Viscous oscillations of capillary bridges

Small-amplitude oscillations of viscous, capillary bridges are characterized by their frequency and rate of damping. In turn, these depend on the surface tension and viscosity of the liquid, the dimensions of the bridge, the axial and azimuthal wavenumbers of each excited mode and the relative magnitude of gravity. Both analytical and numerical methods have been employed in studying these effects. Increasing the gravitational Bond number decreases the eigenvalues in addition to modifying the well-known Rayleigh stability limit for meniscus breakup. At high Reynolds numbers results from inviscid and boundary-layer theories are recovered. At very low Reynolds numbers oscillations become overdamped. The analysis is applicable in measuring properties of semiconductor and ceramic materials at high temperatures under well-controlled conditions. Such data are quite scarce.