Impact of a liquid marble on a flat plate*

A millimetric droplet of fluid coated in a hydrophobic powder, also known as a liquid marble, is released onto a flat surface. The marble behaves as a soft elastic solid during contact and can rebound multiple times before eventually dissipating its initial impact energy. Curiously, it is observed that coefficient of restitution depends non-monotonically on the impact speed. Experimental measurements for the coefficient of restitution and contact time are compared to the predictions of a weakly viscous droplet rebound model, solved using a kinematic match condition. The model is then extended to study the case where the impact surface oscillates vertically and captures a period-doubling cascade to chaos observed in experiment. Ongoing and future work will be discussed.