scholarly journals Surface textures suppress viscoelastic braking on soft substrates

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (51) ◽  
pp. 32285-32292
Author(s):  
Martin Coux ◽  
John M. Kolinski

A gravity-driven droplet will rapidly flow down an inclined substrate, resisted only by stresses inside the liquid. If the substrate is compliant, with an elastic modulusG< 100 kPa, the droplet will markedly slow as a consequence of viscoelastic braking. This phenomenon arises due to deformations of the solid at the moving contact line, enhancing dissipation in the solid phase. Here, we pattern compliant surfaces with textures and probe their interaction with droplets. We show that the superhydrophobic Cassie state, where a droplet is supported atop air-immersed textures, is preserved on soft textured substrates. Confocal microscopy reveals that every texture in contact with the liquid is deformed by capillary stresses. This deformation is coupled to liquid pinning induced by the orientation of contact lines atop soft textures. Thus, compared to flat substrates, greater forcing is required for the onset of drop motion when the soft solid is textured. Surprisingly, droplet velocities down inclined soft or hard textured substrates are indistinguishable; the textures thus suppress viscoelastic braking despite substantial fluid–solid contact. High-speed microscopy shows that contact line velocities atop the pillars vastly exceed those associated with viscoelastic braking. This velocity regime involves less deformation, thus less dissipation, in the solid phase. Such rapid motions are only possible because the textures introduce a new scale and contact-line geometry. The contact-line orientation atop soft pillars induces significant deflections of the pillars on the receding edge of the droplet; calculations confirm that this does not slow down the droplet.

Author(s):  
Jacqueline Barber ◽  
K. Sefiane ◽  
D. Brutin ◽  
L. Tadrist

Boiling in microchannels is a very efficient mode of heat transfer. High heat and mass transfer coefficients are achieved. Evaporation of the liquid meniscus is the main contributor to the high heat fluxes achieved due to phase change at thin liquid films in a microchannel. The microscale hydrodynamic motion and the mechanisms at the immediate vicinity of the moving contact line are still not fully comprehended. There are several flow instabilities during boiling in microchannels. These instabilities need to be well understood and predicted due to their adverse effects on the heat transfer. It is hoped to understand particular flow instabilities, such as flow reversal, through experimental research at the contact line. A simultaneous visualisation and measurement experiment was carried out to investigate these flow instabilities in microchannels. Boiling has been induced in a microchannel (dh 570 μm), stabilising just one liquid-vapour interface, and observing its progression through various microchannel geometries. Images and video sequences have been achieved with both a high speed camera and an infra red camera. Analysis of these images allow the application of several existing models to be fitted to our flow instability observations, namely flow reversal and its possible mechanism of vapour recoil, at the moving contact line.


1990 ◽  
Vol 221 ◽  
pp. 53-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Weinstein ◽  
E. B. Dussan ◽  
Lyle H. Ungar

The problem of viscous fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell with moving contact lines is considered. In contrast to the usual situation where the displaced fluid coats the solid surface in the form of thin films, here, both the displacing and the displaced fluids make direct contact with the solid. The principal differences between these two situations are in the ranges of attainable values of the gapwise component of the interfacial curvature (the component due to the bending of the fluid interface across the small gap of the Hele-Shaw cell), and in the introduction of two additional parameters for the case with moving contact lines. These parameters are the receding contact angle, and the sensivity of the dynamic angle to the speed of the contact line. Our objective is the prediction of the shape and widths of the fingers in the limit of small capillary number, Uμ/σ. Here, U denotes the finger speed, μ denotes the dynamic viscosity of the more viscous displaced fluid, and σ denotes the surface tension of the fluid interface. As might be expected, there are similarities and differences between the two problems. Despite the fact that different equations arise, we find that they can be analysed using the techniques introduced by McLean & Saffman and Vanden-Broeck for the thin-film case. The nature of the multiplicity of solutions also appears to be similar for the two problems. Our results indicate that when contact lines are present, the finger shapes are sensitive to the value of the contact angle only in the vicinity of its nose, reminiscent of experiments where bubbles or wires are placed at the nose of viscous fingers when thin films are present. On the other hand, in the present problem at least two distinct velocity scales emerge with well-defined asymptotic limits, each of these two cases being distinguished by the relative importance played by the two components of the curvature of the fluid interface. It is found that the widths of fingers can be significantly smaller than half the width of the cell.


2001 ◽  
Vol 11 (PR6) ◽  
pp. Pr6-199-Pr6-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Pomeau

2013 ◽  
Vol 715 ◽  
pp. 283-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Sui ◽  
Peter D. M. Spelt

AbstractUsing a slip-length-based level-set approach with adaptive mesh refinement, we have simulated axisymmetric droplet spreading for a dimensionless slip length down to $O(1{0}^{\ensuremath{-} 4} )$. The main purpose is to validate, and where necessary improve, the asymptotic analysis of Cox (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 357, 1998, pp. 249–278) for rapid droplet spreading/dewetting, in terms of the detailed interface shape in various regions close to the moving contact line and the relation between the apparent angle and the capillary number based on the instantaneous contact-line speed, $\mathit{Ca}$. Before presenting results for inertial spreading, simulation results are compared in detail with the theory of Hocking & Rivers (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 121, 1982, pp. 425–442) for slow spreading, showing that these agree very well (and in detail) for such small slip-length values, although limitations in the theoretically predicted interface shape are identified; a simple extension of the theory to viscous exterior fluids is also proposed and shown to yield similar excellent agreement. For rapid droplet spreading, it is found that, in principle, the theory of Cox can predict accurately the interface shapes in the intermediate viscous sublayer, although the inviscid sublayer can only be well presented when capillary-type waves are outside the contact-line region. However, $O(1)$ parameters taken to be unity by Cox must be specified and terms be corrected to ${\mathit{Ca}}^{+ 1} $ in order to achieve good agreement between the theory and the simulation, both of which are undertaken here. We also find that the apparent angle from numerical simulation, obtained by extrapolating the interface shape from the macro region to the contact line, agrees reasonably well with the modified theory of Cox. A simplified version of the inertial theory is proposed in the limit of negligible viscosity of the external fluid. Building on these results, weinvestigate the flow structure near the contact line, the shear stress and pressure along the wall, and the use of the analysis for droplet impact and rapid dewetting. Finally, we compare the modified theory of Cox with a recent experiment for rapid droplet spreading, the results of which suggest a spreading-velocity-dependent dynamic contact angle in the experiments. The paper is closed with a discussion of the outlook regarding the potential of using the present results in large-scale simulations wherein the contact-line region is not resolved down to the slip length, especially for inertial spreading.


2016 ◽  
Vol 236 ◽  
pp. 50-62
Author(s):  
Hongrok Shin ◽  
Ki Wan Bong ◽  
Chongyoup Kim

2021 ◽  
Vol 924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akhil Varma ◽  
Anubhab Roy ◽  
Baburaj A. Puthenveettil

Abstract


2008 ◽  
Vol 605 ◽  
pp. 59-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
XIAO-PING WANG ◽  
TIEZHENG QIAN ◽  
PING SHENG

We simulate the moving contact line in two-dimensional chemically patterned channels using a diffuse-interface model with the generalized Navier boundary condition. The motion of the fluid–fluid interface in confined immiscible two-phase flows is modulated by the chemical pattern on the top and bottom surfaces, leading to a stick–slip behaviour of the contact line. The extra dissipation induced by this oscillatory contact-line motion is significant and increases rapidly with the wettability contrast of the pattern. A critical value of the wettability contrast is identified above which the effect of diffusion becomes important, leading to the interesting behaviour of fluid–fluid interface breaking, with the transport of the non-wetting fluid being assisted and mediated by rapid diffusion through the wetting fluid. Near the critical value, the time-averaged extra dissipation scales as U, the displacement velocity. By decreasing the period of the pattern, we show the solid surface to be characterized by an effective contact angle whose value depends on the material characteristics and composition of the patterned surfaces.


1997 ◽  
Vol 337 ◽  
pp. 49-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Q. CHEN ◽  
E. RAMÉ ◽  
S. GAROFF

The dynamics of a spreading liquid body are dictated by the interface shape and flow field very near the moving contact line. The interface shape and flow field have been described by asymptotic models in the limit of small capillary number, Ca. Previous work established the validity and limitations of these models of the interface shape (Chen et al. 1995). Here, we study the flow field near the moving contact line. Using videomicroscopy, particle image velocimetry, and digital image analysis, we simultaneously make quantitative measurements of both the interface shape and flow field from 30 μm to a few hundred microns from the contact line. We compare our data to the modulated-wedge solution for the velocity field near a moving contact line (Cox 1986). The measured flow fields demonstrate quantitative agreement with predictions for Ca[les ]0.1, but deviations of ∼5% of the spreading velocity at Ca≈0.4. We observe that the interface shapes and flow fields become geometry independent near the contact line. Our experimental technique provides a way of measuring the interface shape and velocity field to be used as boundary conditions for numerical calculations of the macroscopic spreading dynamics.


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