https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2015-15062-y
Regular Article
Wetting morphologies on randomly oriented fibers
1
Surface du Verre et Interfaces, UMR 125, 93303, Aubervilliers, France
2
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, 08544, Princeton, NJ, USA
3
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, 11201, Brooklyn, NY, USA
* e-mail: alban.sauret@saint-gobain.com
Received:
20
March
2015
Revised:
1
May
2015
Accepted:
18
May
2015
Published online:
29
June
2015
We characterize the different morphologies adopted by a drop of liquid placed on two randomly oriented fibers, which is a first step toward understanding the wetting of fibrous networks. The present work reviews previous modeling for parallel and touching crossed fibers and extends it to an arbitrary orientation of the fibers characterized by the tilting angle and the minimum spacing distance. Depending on the volume of liquid, the spacing distance between fibers and the angle between the fibers, we highlight that the liquid can adopt three different equilibrium morphologies: 1) a column morphology in which the liquid spreads between the fibers, 2) a mixed morphology where a drop grows at one end of the column or 3) a single drop located at the node. We capture the different morphologies observed using an analytical model that predicts the equilibrium configuration of the liquid based on the geometry of the fibers and the volume of liquid.
Key words: Soft Matter: Interfacial Phenomena and Nanostructured Surfaces
© EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015