Related papers: Activity-Driven Dewetting and Rupture in Thin Liqu…
Volatile viscous fluids on partially-wetting solid substrates can exhibit interesting interfacial instabilities and pattern formation. We study the dynamics of vapor condensation and fluid evaporation governed by a one-sided model in a low…
We showed that a wetting layer in epitaxially strained thin films which decreases with increasing lattice mismatch strain arises due to the variation of nonlinear elastic free energy with film thickness. We calculated how and at what…
Using novel micro-printing techniques, we develop a versatile experimental setup that allows us to study how lateral confinement tames the active flows and defect properties of the microtubule/kinesin active nematic system. We demonstrate…
Active fluids operate by constantly dissipating energy at the particle level to perform a directed motion, yielding dynamics and phases without any equilibrium equivalent. The emerging behaviors have been studied extensively, yet…
We develop a unified theoretical framework for thin-film hydrodynamics on inclined solid substrates, integrating capillarity, intermolecular forces, gravitational symmetry breaking, confined transport and stochastic wetting into a single…
Plants and insects use slender conical structures to transport and collect small droplets, which are propelled along the conical structures due to capillary action. These droplets can deposit a fluid film during their motion, but despite…
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…
Active drops emit/absorb chemical solutes, whose concentration gradients cause interfacial flows driving their own transport and the propulsion of the droplet. Such non-linear coupling enables active drops to achieve directed…
We investigate the influence of side-wall wetting on the linear stability of falling liquid films confined in the spanwise direction. A biglobal stability framework is developed, capturing inertia, viscosity, gravity, capillarity, and…
We discuss instabilities of fluid films of nanoscale thickness, with a particular focus on films where the destabilising mechanism allows for linear instability, metastability, and absolute stability. Our study is motivated by nematic…
A surface instability is reported in thin nematic films of 5CB and 8CB, occurring near the nematic--isotropic phase transition. Although this instability leads to patterns reminiscent of spinodal dewetting, we show that it is actually based…
Recent experiments have shown that various structures may be formed during the evaporative dewetting of thin films of colloidal suspensions. Nano-particle deposits of strongly branched `flower-like', labyrinthine and network structures are…
A continuum model of fracture that describes, in principle, the propagation and interaction of arbitrary distributions of cracks and voids with evolving topology without a fracture criterion is developed. It involves a 'law of motion' for…
Solid-state dewetting is the process by which thin solid films break up and retract on a substrate, forming nanostructures. While dewetting of single-crystalline films is understood as a surface-energy-driven process mediated by surface…
Development, regeneration and cancer involve drastic transitions in tissue morphology. In analogy with the behavior of inert fluids, some of these transitions have been interpreted as wetting transitions. The validity and scope of this…
Reactive dual ion beam sputter deposition of AlN thin films was carried out for the analysis of surface growth characteristics by Atomic Force Microscopy. The variation of roughness as a function of deposition time was analysed by Dynamic…
When a volatile droplet is deposited on a floating swellable sheet, it becomes asymmetric, lobed and mobile. We describe and quantify this phenomena that involves nonequilibrium swelling, evaporation and motion, working together to realize…
A strained epitaxial film deposited on a deformable substrate undergoes a morphological instability relaxing the elastic energy by surface diffusion. The nonlinear and nonlocal dynamical equations of such films with wetting interactions are…
We study theoretically the evaporation-driven phase separation of a binary fluid mixture in a thin film deposited on a moving substrate, as occurs in meniscus-guided deposition for solution-processed materials. Our focus is on rapid…
Droplet impact on thin liquid films is commonly studied on quiescent surfaces, although practical systems often involve residual capillary waves generated by preceding droplets. This study examines how such traveling waves modify impact…