Current interests include mycofluidic transport, the influence of non-Newtonian rheology on hydrodynamic singularities, and respiratory-droplet formation driven by viscoelastic mucus rheology.
01 · Themes
How does soft matter break?
Drop impact & impact forces
Inertia, viscosity, surface tension, wettability, and rheology set the force history during impact. We connect liquid drops and soft elastic beads through a shared impact-regime diagram.
Capillary-wave focusing after bubble-cap rupture launches Worthington jets. Viscosity and elasticity decide whether those jets eject droplets, thicken, or fail to pinch off across Newtonian, viscoplastic, and elastoviscoplastic media.
Surface tension retracts holes in thin sheets; viscosity, inertia, surrounding fluid, and surfactant set rim growth and droplet breakup. We study double-threshold rupture in draining films.
We extend Basilisk C with non-Newtonian, viscoelastic, and elastoviscoplastic solvers, and contribute integral surface-tension formulations. Every paper ships with a reproducible simulation repository.
Gordillo, J. M., Rodríguez-Rodríguez, J., & Sanjay, V. Self-similar Worthington jets. arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.08972 (2026).
Yang, Z., Sanjay, V., Constante-Amores, C. R., & Feng, J. Confinement-Induced Suppression of Jet Drop Size by Bubble Bursting in Shallow Liquids. arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.28609 (2026).
Ghaemi, A. H., Yang, Z., Huang, A., Sanjay, V., Feng, J., & Constante-Amores, C. R. Bursting bubbles in Herschel-Bulkley fluids: dynamics and jetting transitions. arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.23345 (2025).
2026
[26] Sanjay, V. Singularities in Soft Matter Systems. Contemporary Physics (2026).
[25] Verschuur, C. I., Oratis, A. T., Sanjay, V., & Snoeijer, J. H. How elasticity affects bubble pinch-off. Phys. Rev. Fluids, 11, 073302 (2026).
[24] Appleford, T., Sanjay, V., & Jalaal, M. Rheology of Two-Dimensional Dilute Emulsions. Phys. Rev. Fluids, 11, 033607 (2026).
[23] Jana, S., Kolinski, J., Lohse, D., & Sanjay, V. Impacting spheres: from liquid drops to elastic beads. Soft Matter, 22, 2226-2236 (2026).
Highlights
Selected as the cover article for Soft Matter, Issue 11 (2026).
[22] Dixit, A. K., Zhao, C., Zaleski, S., Lohse, D., & Sanjay, V. Holes in Sheets: Double-Threshold Rupture of Draining Liquid Films. Phys. Rev. Lett., 136, 084001 (2026).
[21] Díaz, D., Bhargava, A. S., Walz, F., Sharifi, A., Summaly, S., Berger, R., Kappl, M., Butt, H.-J., Lohse, D., Willers, T., Sanjay, V., & Vollmer, D. Stood-up Drop to Determine Receding Contact Angles. Soft Matter, 22, 657-667 (2026).
2025
[20] Demirkır, Ç., Yang, R., Bashkatov, A., Sanjay, V., Lohse, D., & Krug, D. To jump or not to jump: Adhesion and viscous dissipation dictate the detachment of coalescing wall-attached bubbles. Phys. Rev. Fluids, 10, 123602 (2025).
[19] Mclauchlan, J., Walker, J. S., Sanjay, V., Jalaal, M., Reid, J. P., Squires, A. M., & Souslov, A. Bouncing microdroplets on hydrophobic surfaces. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 122, e2507309122 (2025).
[18] Saini, M., Sanjay, V., Saade, Y., Lohse, D., & Popinet, S. Implementation of integral surface tension formulations in a volume of fluid framework and their applications to Marangoni flows. J. Comput. Phys., 542, 114348 (2025).
[17] Bashkatov, A., Bürkle, F., Demirkır, Ç., Ding, W., Sanjay, V., Babich, A., Yang, X., Mutschke, G., Czarske, J., Lohse, D., Krug, D., Lars, B., & Eckert, E. Electrolyte droplet spraying in H2 bubbles during water electrolysis under normal and microgravity conditions. Nat. Commun., 16, 4580 (2025).
[16] Dixit, A., Oratis, A., Zinelis, K., Lohse, D., & Sanjay, V. Viscoelastic Worthington Jets and Droplets Produced by Bursting Bubbles. J. Fluid Mech., 1010, A2 (2025).
[15] Sanjay, V., & Lohse, D. Unifying theory of scaling in drop impact: Forces & maximum spreading diameter. Phys. Rev. Lett., 134, 104003 (2025).
[14] Sanjay, V., Zhang, B., Lv, C., & Lohse, D. The role of viscosity on drop impact forces on non-wetting surfaces. J. Fluid Mech., 1004, A6 (2025).
Highlights
Cover of that volume of J. Fluid Mech.
[13] Kayal, L., Sanjay, V., Yewale, N., Kumar, A., & Dasgupta, R. Focusing of concentric free-surface waves. J. Fluid Mech., 1003, A14 (2025).
2024
[12] Balasubramanian, A. G., Sanjay, V., Jalaal, M., Vinuesa, R., & Tammisola, O. Bursting bubble in an elastoviscoplastic medium. J. Fluid Mech., 1001, A9 (2024).
Highlights
Cover of that volume of J. Fluid Mech.
2023
[11] Sanjay, V., Chantelot, P., & Lohse, D. When does an impacting drop stop bouncing? J. Fluid Mech., 958, A26 (2023).
[10] Sanjay, V., Lakshman, S., Chantelot, P., Snoeijer, J. H., & Lohse, D. Drop impact on viscous liquid films. J. Fluid Mech., 958, A25 (2023).
2022
➡️ Sanjay, V. Viscous free-surface flows. Ph.D. Thesis, Physics of Fluids, University of Twente (2022).
[9] Sanjay, V., Sen, U., Kant, P., and Lohse, D. Taylor–Culick retractions and the influence of the surroundings. J. Fluid Mech., 948, A14 (2022).
[8] Zhang, B., Sanjay, V., Shi, S., and Zhao, Y., and Lv, C., and Feng, X.-Q., & Lohse, D. Impact forces of water drops falling on superhydrophobic surfaces. Phys. Rev. Lett., 129(10), 104501 (2022).
Highlights
As of March/April 2024, this highly cited paper received enough citations to place it in the top 1% of the academic field of Physics based on a highly cited threshold for the field and publication year. Source: Web of Science.
Editor’s Suggestion of that issue of Phys. Rev. Lett.
Research Highlight: Castelvecchi, D. The physics of a bouncing droplet’s impact. Nature, 609, 225 (2022).
2021
[7] Sanjay, V., Lohse, D., & Jalaal, M. Bursting bubble in a viscoplastic medium. J. Fluid Mech., 922, A2 (2021).
2020
[6] Ramírez-Soto, O., Sanjay, V., Lohse, D., Pham, J. T., & Vollmer, D. Lifting a sessile oil drop from a superamphiphobic surface with an impacting one. Sci. Adv., 6(34), eaba4330 (2020).
2019
[5] Jain, A., Sanjay, V., & Das, A. K. Consequences of inclined and dual jet impingement in stagnant liquid and stratified layers. AIChE J., 65(1), 372-384 (2019).
2018
[4] Soni, A., Sanjay, V., & Das, A. K. Formation of fluid structures due to jet-jet and jet-sheet interactions. Chem. Eng. Sci., 191, 67-77 (2018).
[3] Sanjay, V., Das, A.K. Numerical assessment of hazard in compartmental fire having steady heat release rate from the source. Build. Simul. 11, 613–624 (2018).
2017
[2] Sanjay, V., & Das, A. K. Formation of liquid chain by collision of two laminar jets. Phys. Fluids, 29(11), 112101 (2017).
[1] Sanjay, V., & Das, A. K. On air entrainment in a water pool by impingement of a jet. AIChE J., 63(11), 5169-5181 (2017).