| Fragmentation phenomena will be reviewed with a particular emphasis on processes occurring with liquids, those giving rise to drops in the broad sense, the process of atomization. Various observations converge to propose a unifying scenario describing the overall transition between a compact macroscopic liquid volume and its subsequent dispersion into stable drops. In liquids, primary instabilities always give birth to more or less corrugated ligaments whose breakup induce the shape of the drop size distribution in the resulting spray. Examples include the fragmentation of jets and liquid sheets, the formation of spume by the wind blowing over a liquid surface, bursting phenomena, impacts and raindrops. |
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