Exit time of colloidal particles from falling drops
Phys. Rev. E 112, 065104 – Published 17 December, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/h8sk-8kp7
Abstract
This work investigates the influence of convective transport within a sedimenting drop on the exit time of a colloidal particle. Using Brownian dynamics simulations, we compute exit times for particles originating from various locations inside the drop over a range of Péclet numbers (). The Péclet number quantifies the balance between the convective transport, caused by the Hadamard-Rybczynski flow field within a sedimenting drop, and the thermal fluctuations in the system. Additionally, we model the exit time as a first-passage process governed by the backward Kolmogorov equation, solving it asymptotically for and , as well as numerically, to determine the mean exit time as a function of .