Related papers: Patterning droplets with durotaxis
Wetting phenomena are relevant in several technological applications, particularly those involving hydrophobic or hydrophilic surfaces. Many substrates support multiple wetting states depending on surface conditions or droplet history, a…
Nanodroplets on chemically structured substrates move under the action of disjoining pressure induced forces. A detailed analysis of them shows that even in the absence of long-ranged lateral variations of the effective interface potential,…
We briefly review recent advances in the hydrodynamic modeling of the dynamics of droplets on adaptive substrates, in particular, solids that are covered by polymer brushes. Thereby, the focus are long-wave and full-curvature variants of…
Cell crawling crucially depends on the collective dynamics of the acto-myosin cytoskeleton. However, it remains an open question to what extent cell polarization and persistent motion depend on continuous regulatory mechanisms and…
Manipulating micro-scale object plays paramount roles in a wide range of fundamental researches and applications. At micro-scale, various methods have been developed in the past decades, including optical, electric, magnetic, aerodynamic…
Under partial wetting conditions, making a substrate uniformly rougher enhances the wetting characteristics of the corresponding smooth substrate {--} hydrophilic systems become even more hydrophilic and hydrophobic systems even more…
Droplets, sub-millilitre liquid volumes with at least one interface, have traditionally served as compartments for storing, transporting, and delivering materials. Beyond familiar applications in food, coatings, and consumer goods, they…
The dynamic behavior of a partially wetting polymer droplet driven over a nanostructured interface is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. We consider the bead-spring model to represent a polymeric liquid that partially wets a…
Deformed droplets are ubiquitous in various industrial applications, such as inkjet printing, lab-on-a-chip devices, and spray cooling, and can fundamentally affect the involved applications both favorably and unfavorably. Here, we employ…
Discrete simulation methods are efficient tools to investigate the complex behaviors of complex fluids made of either dry granular materials or dilute suspensions. By contrast, materials made of soft and/or concentrated units (emulsions,…
A thin liquid film with non-zero curvature at its free surface spontaneously flows to reach a flat configuration, a process driven by Laplace pressure gradients and resisted by the liquid's viscosity. Inspired by recent progresses on the…
This research introduces a new drop fluidics, which uses a deformable and stretchable elastomeric film as the platform, instead of the commonly used rigid supports. Such a soft film impregnated with magnetic particles can be modulated with…
We study the motion of a two-dimensional droplet on an inclined surface, under the action of gravity, using a diffuse interface model which allows for arbitrary equilibrium contact angles. The kinematics of motion is analysed by decomposing…
The wetting of soft polymer substrates brings in multiple complexities as compared to the wetting on rigid substrates. The contact angle of the liquid is no longer governed by Young's law, but is affected by the substrate's bulk and surface…
We numerically study the dynamics of a passive fluid droplet confined within a microchannel whose walls are covered with a thin layer of active gel. The latter represents a fluid of extensile material modelling, for example, a suspension of…
We present a study of the spreading of liquid droplets on a solid substrate at very small scales. We focus on the regime where effective wetting energy (binding potential) and surface tension effects significantly influence steady and…
We propose a simple model to analyze the traffic of droplets in microfluidic ``dual networks''. Such functional networks which consist of two types of channels, namely those accessible or forbidden to droplets, often display a complex…
We explore how chemical patterning on surfaces can be used to control drop wetting. Both numerical and experimental results are presented to show how the dynamic pathway and equilibrium shape of the drops are altered by a hydrophobic grid.…
Particles confined in droplets are called compound particles. They are encountered in various biological and soft matter systems. Hydrodynamics can play a decisive role in determining the configuration and stability of these multiphase…
Patterns are quotidian in nature. Distinct multiscale patterns are generally a consequence of nonequilibrium dynamical processes associated with mechanical or hydrodynamic instabilities. In this thesis, I report experimental investigations…