Drop breakup in three-dimensional viscous flows

A new three-dimensional boundary integral algorithm is presented that is capable of simulating the process of drop breakup in viscous flows. The surface discretization is fully adaptive, thus providing accurate resolution of the highly deformed drop shapes that are characteristic of breakup events. Our algorithm is used to study drop breakup in shear flow and in buoyancy; the predictions are compared with experimental observations. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.