Line Tension Effect on Alkane Droplets Near the Wetting Transition

1996 ◽  
Vol 464 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. Dussaud ◽  
M. Vignes-Adler

ABSTRACTWe have investigated n-octane droplets resting on the surface of sodium chloride solutions as a function of the salt concentration in a saturated, closed cell. For high salt concentration, the system approaches a wetting transition : the contact angles are very small (∼ 1°), the macroscopic droplet is unstable, and it breaks up spontaneously into microdroplets. The stable polydisperse population of microdroplets (5 μm < r < 250 μm) allowed us to analyze the dependence of the contact angle on droplet size. Because of the low contact angle values, accurate measurement ofcontact angles was obtained by interferometry. Moreover the accuracy of the classical method was significantly improved through the systematic use of three wavelengths. The relationship between the contact angle and the size droplet size indicated a positive line tension, τ, and the order of magnitude of τ was in good agreement with the theoretical prediction, τ, varies between (8.6 ± 0.9). 10−11 N and (1 ± 0.1).10−9 N and was dependent on the salt concentration. The positive sign of τ and its significant effect on droplet shape were related to the fact that the system was approaching the wetting transition.

Author(s):  
S. Ravi Annapragada ◽  
Jayathi Y. Murthy ◽  
Suresh V. Garimella

Although many analytical, experimental and numerical studies have focused on droplet motion, the mechanics of the droplet while still in its static state, and just before motion starts, are not well understood. A study of static droplets would shed light on the threshold voltage (or critical inclination) for initiating electrically (or gravitationally) induced droplet motion. Before the droplet starts to move, the droplet shape changes such that the forces acting at the triple contact line balance the actuation forces. These contact line forces are governed by the contact angles along the contact line. The contact angle varies from an advancing angle at the leading edge to a receding angle at the trailing edge of the droplet. The present study seeks to understand and predict these forces at the triple contact line. The droplet shape, as well as the advancing and receding contact angles, is experimentally measured as a function of droplet size under the action of a gravitational force at different inclination angles. The advancing and receding contact angles are correlated with static contact angle and Bond number. A Volume of Fluid - Continuous Surface Force model with varying contact angles along the triple contact line is developed to predict the same. The model is first verified against a two-dimensional analytical solution. It is then used to simulate the shape of a sessile droplet on an incline at various angles of inclination and to determine the critical angle of inclination as a function of droplet size. Good agreement is found between experimental measurements and predictions. The contact line profile and contact area are also predicted. The contact area predictions based on a spherical-cap assumption are also compared against the numerical predictions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ten It Wong ◽  
Hao Wang ◽  
Fuke Wang ◽  
Sau Leng Sin ◽  
Cheng Gen Quan ◽  
...  

In contact angle measurements, direct identification of the contact angles from images taken from a goniometer suffers from errors caused by optical scatterings. Contact angles can be more accurately identified by the height and width of the droplet. Spherical dome is a simple model used to correlate the contact angles to the droplet shape; however, it features intrinsic errors caused by gravity-induced shape deformation. This paper demonstrates a simple method of obtaining an empirical formula, determined from experiments, to correct the gravity-induced error in the spherical dome model for contact angle calculations. A series of contact angles, heights, and surface contact widths are simultaneously collected for a large amount of samples, and the contact angles are also calculated using the spherical dome model. The experimental data are compared with those obtained from the spherical dome model to acquire an empirical formula for contact angles. Compared with the spherical dome model, the empirical formula can reduce the average errors of the contact angle from –16.3 % to 0.18 %. Furthermore, the same method can be used to correct the gravity errors in the spherical dome for the volume (calculated by height and width), height (calculated by contact angle and volume), and width (calculated by contact angle and volume), and the spherical dome errors can be reduced from –20.9 %, 24.6 %, and –4.8 % to 2 %, –0.13 %, and –0.6 %, respectively. Our method is generic and applicable for all kinds of solvent and substrates, and the derived empirical formulae can be directly used for water droplets on any substrate.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1714-1722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Håkon Gundersen ◽  
Hans Petter Leinaas ◽  
Christian Thaulow

The cuticles of most springtails (Collembola) are superhydrophobic, but the mechanism has not been described in detail. Previous studies have suggested that overhanging surface structures play an important role, but such structures are not a universal trait among springtails with superhydrophobic cuticles. A novel wetting experiment with a fluorescent dye revealed the extent of wetting on exposed surface structures. Using simple wetting models to describe the composite wetting of the cuticular surface structures results in underestimating the contact angles of water. Including the three-phase line tension allows for a prediction of contact angles in the observed range. The discrepancy between the contact angle predicted by simple models and those observed is especially large in the springtail Cryptopygus clavatus which changes, seasonally, from superhydrophobic to wetting without a large change in surface structure; C. clavatus does not have overhanging surface structures. This large change in observed contact angles can be explained with a modest change of the three-phase line tension.


2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 1866-1873 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.H. Muster ◽  
A. Bradbury ◽  
A. Trinchi ◽  
I.S. Cole ◽  
T. Markley ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jhonatam Cordeiro ◽  
Salil Desai

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed to investigate the wettability of gold substrate interacting with nanosized droplets of water. The effects of droplet size, temperature variation, and impingement velocity are evaluated using molecular trajectories, dynamic contact angle, spread ratios, radial distribution function (RDF), and molecular diffusion graphs. Droplets of 4 nm and 10 nm were simulated at 293 K and 373 K, respectively. Stationary droplets were compared to droplets impinging the substrate at 100 m/s. The simulations were executed on high-end workstations equipped with NVIDIA® Tesla graphical processing units (GPUs). Results show that smaller droplets have a faster stabilization time and lower contact angles than larger droplets. With an increase in temperature, stabilization time gets faster, and the molecular diffusion from the water droplet increases. Higher temperatures also increase the wettability of the gold substrate, wherein droplets present a lower contact angle and a higher spread ratio. Droplets that impact the substrate at a higher impingement velocity converge to the same contact angle as stationary droplets. At higher temperatures, the impingement velocities accelerate the diffusion of water molecules into vapor. It was revealed that impingement velocities do not influence stabilization times. This research establishes relationships among different process parameters to control the wettability of water on gold substrates which can be explored to study several nanomanufacturing processes.


Author(s):  
Rajesh Leeladhar ◽  
Wei Xu ◽  
Chang-Hwan Choi

In this paper, we experimentally studied the evaporative behavior of the nanofluid droplets (fluid containing metal nanoparticles) on nanoporous superhydrophobic surfaces. Uniformly dispersed in water, gold chloride (AuCl3) nanoparticles of varying sizes (10–250 nm) and concentrations (0.001–0.1% wt) were tested as nanofluids. Porous anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) with a pore size of 250 nm was tested as a nanoporous superhydrophobic surface, coated by a self assembled monolayer (SAM). During the evaporation in a room temperature and pressure, the evaporation kinetics (e.g., contact angle, contact diameter, and volume) of the nanofluid droplets was measured over time by using a goniometer. In the beginning, the initial droplet contact angles were significantly affected by the nanoparticle sizes and concentrations such that as the concentration increased, the initial contact angle decreased, which was more pronounced at larger particle sizes. During evaporation, despite the different particle sizes and concentrations, there were two distinct stages shown, especially for the change of contact angles, i.e., gradual decrease in the beginning, followed by rapid decrease in the end. No remarkable wetting transition from de-wetting (Cassie) to wetting (Wenzel) state was shown during the evaporation. Evaporation rate was influenced by nanoparticles such that it was significantly mitigated with the nanofluid droplet of the highest concentration (0.1% wt). The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images show that the ring-like dry-out pattern forms after the evaporation of nanofluids with lower concentrations (0.001%, 0.01% wt), whereas the one with higher concentrations (0.1%wt) forms a uniformly distributed pattern. These results demonstrate that nanoparticle sizes and concentrations make significant effects on interfacial phenomena in droplet evaporation on nanostructured surfaces, which will impact many engineering applications and system designs based on droplets such as microfluidics and heat transfer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. G. Di Novo ◽  
A. R. Carotenuto ◽  
G. Mensitieri ◽  
M. Fraldi ◽  
N. M. Pugno

The modeling of the viability decay of viruses in sessile droplets is addressed considering a droplet sitting on a smooth surface characterized by a specific contact angle. To investigate, at prescribed temperature, how surface energy of the material and ambient humidity cooperate to determine the virus viability, we propose a model which involves the minimum number of thermodynamically relevant parameters. In particular, by considering a saline water droplet (one salt) as the simplest approximation of real solutions (medium and natural/artificial saliva), the evaporation is described by a first-order time-dependent nonlinear differential equation properly rearranged to obtain the contact angle evolution as the sole unknown function. The analyses were performed for several contact angles and two typical droplet sizes of interest in real situations by assuming constant ambient temperature and relative humidity in the range 0–100%. The results of the simulations, given in terms of time evolution of salt concentration, vapor pressure, and droplet volume, elucidate some previously not yet well-understood dynamics, demonstrating how three main regimes—directly implicated in nontrivial trends of virus viability and to date only highlighted experimentally—can be recognized as the function of relative humidity. By recalling the concept of cumulative dose of salts (CD), to account for the effect of the exposition of viruses to salt concentration on virus viability, we show how the proposed approach could suggest a chart of a virus fate by predicting its survival time at a given temperature as a function of the relative humidity and contact angle. We found a good agreement with experimental data for various enveloped viruses and predicted in particular for the Phi6 virus, a surrogate of coronavirus, the characteristic U-shaped dependence of viability on relative humidity. Given the generality of the model and once experimental data are available that link the vulnerability of a certain virus, such as SARS-CoV-2, to the concentrations of salts or other substances in terms of CD, it is felt that this approach could be employed for antivirus strategies and protocols for the prediction/reduction of human health risks associated with SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.


Author(s):  
Saeid Vafaei ◽  
Dongsheng Wen ◽  
Ganapathiraman Ramanath ◽  
Theodorian Borca-Tasciuc

The purpose of this investigation is to find a unique and accurate criterion to measure surface wettability. The asymptotic contact angle (droplet contact angle in no gravity condition), which is independent of droplet size, is used to identify the surface wettability in this work. The asymptotic contact angle is calculated by equating the normal component of interfacial force on an axisymmetric droplet and spherical droplet. The effect of 2.5 nm bismuth telluride nanoparticles on surface wettability is measured and evaluated by asymptotic contact angles as a sample. This paper also studies the effects of nanoparticles on solid, gas and liquid interactions at the triple line as well as the gas-liquid surface tension of aqueous solutions of 2.5 nm bismuth telluride nanoparticles functionalized with thioglycolic acid. Experimental measurements of nanofluid droplet shapes show that the contact angle strongly depends on nanoparticle concentrations. Fitting the droplet shape with predictions of the Laplace-Young equation, the nanofluid gas-liquid surface tension is determined.


Author(s):  
Rami Benkreif ◽  
Fatima Zohra Brahmia ◽  
Csilla Csiha

AbstractSurface tension of solid wood surfaces affects the wettability and thus the adhesion of various adhesives and wood coatings. By measuring the contact angle of the wood, the surface tension can be calculated based on the Young-Dupré equation. Several publications have reported on contact angle measured with different test liquids, under different conditions. Results can only be compared if the test conditions are similar. While the roles of the drop volume, image shooting time etc., are widely recognized, the role of the wood surface moisture content (MC) is not evaluated in detail. In this study, the effect of wood moisture content on contact angle values, measured with distilled water and diiodomethane, on sanded birch (Betula pendula) surfaces was investigated, in order to find the relationship between them. With increasing MC from approximately 6% to 30%, increasing contact angle (decreasing surface tension) values were measured according to a logarithmic function. The function makes possible the calculation of contact angles that correspond to different MCs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document