Drop impact on a flexible fiber

Emilie Dressaire (1) , Alban Sauret (2) , François Boulogne (3) , Howard A. Stone (3)

1 Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department [NYU Tandon School of Engineering]
2 SVI - Surface du Verre et Interfaces
3 MAE - Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering [Princeton]

When droplets impact fibrous media, the liquid can be captured by the fibers or contact then break away. Previous studies have shown that the efficiency of drop capture by a rigid fiber depends on the impact velocity and defined a threshold velocity below which the drop is captured. However, it is necessary to consider the coupling of elastic and capillary effects to achieve a greater understanding of the capture process for soft substrates. Here, we study experimentally the dynamics of a single drop impacting on a thin flexible fiber. Our results demonstrate that the threshold capture velocity depends on the flexibility of fibers in a non-monotonic way. We conclude that tuning the mechanical properties of fibers can optimize the efficiency of droplet capture.

Domaines: Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]

Emilie Dressaire, Alban Sauret, François Boulogne, Howard A. Stone. Drop impact on a flexible fiber. Soft Matter, 2016, 12, pp.200-208. ⟨10.1039/C5SM02246K⟩. ⟨hal-01253597⟩