Related papers: Elastowetting of Soft Hydrogel Spheres
An adhesively stressed thin film of a soft hydrogel confined between two rigid flat substrates auto-roughens with its dominant wavelength exhibiting pronounced dependence on the film thickness (H). A linear stability analysis confirmed that…
We use a density functional approach to calculate the contact angle of the water model on a heterogeneous, graphite-like surface. The surface heterogeneity results from the pre-adsorption of a layer of spherical species. The pre-adsorbed…
We studied the dynamics of a liquid contact line receding on a hydrophobic soft gel (SBS-paraffin). In order to realize a well-defined geometry with an accurate control of velocity, a dip-coating setup was implemented. Provided that the…
We consider a liquid drop placed on a smooth homogeneous solid substrate as it spreads from rest to its eventual equilibrium state. The problem is studied numerically in the framework of a model where the contact angle formed by the drop's…
The contact of a hydrogel during the rotational shearing on glass surface in concentrated polymer solution was observed in situ. Dynamic contact patterns that rotate in-phase with the rotational shearing of the gel were observed for the…
The dynamic of contact formation between soft materials immersed in a fluid is accompanied by fluid drainage and elastic deformation. As a result, controlling the coupling between lubrication pressure and elasticity provides strategies to…
The equilibrium shape of liquid drops on elastic substrates is determined by minimising elastic and capillary free energies, focusing on thick incompressible substrates. The problem is governed by three length scales: the size of the drop…
Droplets splash when they impact dry, flat substrates above a critical velocity that depends on parameters such as droplet size, viscosity and air pressure. By imaging ethanol drops impacting silicone gels of different stiffnesses we show…
The impact of a hydrogel sphere onto a granular target results in both the deformation of the sphere and the formation of a prominent topographic feature known as impact crater on the granular surface. We investigate the crater formation…
Controlling the spatial distribution of liquid droplets on surfaces via surface energy patterning can be used to control material delivery to specified regions via selective liquid/solid wetting. While studies of the equilibrium shape of…
We report, for the first time, some experimental observations regarding a new type of long range interaction between rigid particles that prevails when they are suspended in an soft elastic gel. A denser particle submerges itself to a…
The spreading of liquid drops on soft substrates is extremely slow, owing to strong viscoelastic dissipation inside the solid. A detailed understanding of the spreading dynamics has remained elusive, partly owing to the difficulty in…
Raindrops falling on window panes spread upon contact, whereas hail can cause dents or scratches on the same glass window upon contact. While the former phenomenon resembles classical wetting, the latter is dictated by contact and adhesion…
The effects of viscoelasticity have been shown to manifest themselves via symmetry breaking. In this investigation, we show a novel phenomenon that arises from this idea. We observe that when a dense sphere is rotated near a wall (the…
Motivated by roughness-induced adhesion enhancement (toughening and strengthening) in low modulus materials, we study the detachment of a sphere from a substrate in the presence of both viscoelastic dissipation at the contact edge, and…
From pasta to biological tissues to contact lenses, gel and gel-like materials inherently soften as they swell with water. In dry, low-relative-humidity environments, these materials stiffen as they de-swell with water. Here, we use…
We use large-scale molecular dynamics to study dynamics at the three-phase contact line in electrowetting of water and electrolytes on no-slip substrates. Under the applied electrostatic potential the line friction at the contact line is…
We investigate theoretically and numerically the impact of an elastic sphere on a rigid wall in a viscous fluid. Our focus is on the dynamics of the contact, employing the soft lubrication model in which the sphere is separated from the…
Using experiments and numerical simulations, we investigate the spontaneous spreading of droplets of aqueous glycerol (Newtonian) and aqueous polymer (shear-thinning) solutions on smooth surfaces. We find that in the first millisecond the…
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…