Characterization of oscillation modes in levitated droplets using image and non-image based techniques

The dynamics of levitated liquid droplets can be used to measure their thermophysical properties by correlating the frequencies at which normal modes of oscillation most strongly resonate when subject to an external oscillatory force. In two preliminary works, it was shown via electrostatic levitation and processing of various metals and alloys that (1) the resonance of the first principal mode of oscillation (mode n = 2) can be used to accurately measure surface tension and (2) that so-called “higher-order resonance” of n = 3 is observable at a predictable frequency. It was also shown, in the context of future space-based experimentation on the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF), a setup on the International Space Station (ISS) operated by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), that while the shadow array method in which droplet behavior is visualized would be challenging to identify the n = 3 resonance, the normal mode n = 4 was predicted to be more easily identifiable. In this short communication, experimental evidence of the first three principal modes of oscillation is provided using molten samples of Tin and Indium and it is subsequently shown that, as predicted, an “image-less" approach can be used to identify both n = 2 and n = 4 resonances in levitated liquid droplets. This suggests that the shadow array method may be satisfactorily used to obtain a self-consistent benchmark of thermophysical properties by comparing results from two successive even-mode natural frequencies.