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.
CoMPhy Lab · Research
Research
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?
Soft matter singularities
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.
Holes & Taylor–Culick retractions
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.
Open-source DNS for complex fluids
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.
02 · Full list
All publications
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Research
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Work in Progress
Verschuur, C. I., Oratis, A. T., Sanjay, V., & Snoeijer, J. H. How elasticity affects bubble pinch-off. arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.20075 (2025).
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
[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).
