  The present work investigates free damped oscillations of an oil drop in
water after its release from a capillary tube. Both pure heptane drops and
diluted crude oil drops are considered (in the second case the interface is
covered by amphiphilic species, natural components of crude oil). Shadowgraph
images of the drops are taken by means of a high speed camera and the drop
contour is detected by image processing. The axisymmetric drop shape is then
decomposed into spherical harmonics, which constitute the eigenmodes of
oscillations predicted by the Rayleigh-Lamb theory. Time evolution of each mode
is then obtained. The frequency and the damping rate of the principal mode
(n=2) are accurately determined and compared with theoretical values for an
immobile clean drop oscillating around spherical shape. For pure heptane drops,
theoretical value of the frequency agrees well with experiments whereas the
damping rate is significantly underestimated by theory. The experimental
results clearly show that the different modes are coupled. Energy is thus
transfered from mode n=2 to n=3, which probably explains the observed
enhancement of the damping rate. The effect of the interface viscoelastic
behaviour, induced by adsorbed amphiphilic species on the free oscillations was
examined. No significant effect was observed in the experiments conditions
(small amplitude oscillations and moderate aging).
