Flow-induced breakup of drops and bubbles

Breakup of drop/bubble can be viewed as a result of fundamental force balance when the disruptive force is greater than the restorative force. A disruptive force acting on the drop/bubble tries to deform it, whereas a restorative force refrains it from deforming. Studying breakup and coalescence phenomenon is utmost important since it governs the amount of interfacial area and hence the exchange of heat, mass and momentum across the interface. It also helps in the development of better closure relations for modeling large scale systems. In this paper, abundant literature consisting of theoretical, experimental and numerical works up to date is reviewed. Broadly, breakup is classified into viscous, inertial and complex turbulent breakup. Physics involved and non-dimensional numbers governing the drop and bubble breakup in various flow configurations are discussed. Characteristic parameters of the breakup such as critical diameter ($d_{max}$), maximum deformation, breakup time ($t_b$), wavelength of disturbance ($λ$), impurities in the flow, initial shape of the drop/bubble, history of the flow and critical values of non-dimensional numbers are examined and the important parameters are listed for ready-to-use in modeling approaches. Finally, scope for future work in number of areas is identified.