Determination of the profile of a growing droplet

The profile of a growing droplet was determined with a pressure balance which was similar to that derived by Laplace for the static droplet. An additional term was added to the balance to account for the pressure on the interface due to the motion of the fluid within the droplet. The entire pressure balance was then combined with differential equations describing the geometry of the droplet. Computed profiles compared favorably with those obtained experimentally. An additional result was the definition of a parameter, f , indicating the importance of internal fluid motion on the shape of the profile. A method of estimating this parameter without solving the equations was developed.