The circular capillary jump

In this paper we re-examine the flow produced by the normal impact of a laminar liquid jet onto an infinite plane when the flow is dominated by surface tension. Over the range of parameters we consider, which are typical of water from a tap over a kitchen sink, it is observed experimentally that after impact the liquid spreads radially over the plane away from the point of impact in a thin film. It is also observed that, at a finite radius, there is an abrupt increase in thickness of the film which has been identified as a hydraulic jump. Once the jump is formed this radius remains constant in time and, further, is independent of the orientation of the surface showing that gravity is unimportant (Bhagat et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 851, 2018, R5). We show that the application of conservation of momentum in the film, subject only to viscosity and surface tension and ignoring gravity completely, predicts a singularity in the curvature of the liquid film and consequently a jump in the depth of the film at a finite radius. This location is almost identical to the radius of the jump predicted by conservation of energy and agrees with experimental observations. We also provide the correct boundary condition to be applied at an interface, where there is a change in interfacial area as a result of the fluid flow, that accounts for the energy change associated with fluid molecules’ exchange between the interface and the bulk