Sprecher
Beschreibung
Droplets resting on flexible sheets deform into lens-like shapes, offer-
ing promising applications in areas like tunable liquid lenses. We have
extended and employ our fully three-dimensional Boundary Element
Method (BEM) simulation framework [1] to investigate dynamic wet-
ting on thin flexible sheets. Our study focuses on the intricate interplay
between the mechanical properties of the sheet and droplet behavior,
particularly emphasizing contact angle and droplet shape.
By varying the tension and mechanical properties of the sheet, our
model demonstrates how we can control and tune the shape of the
droplet. Additionally, by introducing a circular sheet, we observe the occurrence of a wrinkling pattern phenomena on our sheet. The
versatility of our model suggests potential extensions to other soft ma-
terial and droplet interactions, such as capillary origami and droplet motion by durotaxis. This work
sheds light on the complex interactions between soft substrates and
liquid interfaces, leading the way for advancements in material science
and interfacial biology.
[1] J. Grawitter and H. Stark, Steering droplets on substrates with
plane-wave wettability patterns and deformations, Soft Matter 20,
3161 (2024).