Abstract
The coalescence of viscous drops on a substrate is studied experimentally and theoretically. We consider cases where the drops can have different contact angles, leading to a very asymmetric coalescence process. Side view experiments reveal that the “bridge” connecting the drops evolves with self-similar dynamics, providing a new perspective on the coalescence of sessile drops. We show that the universal shape of the bridge is accurately described by similarity solutions of the one-dimensional lubrication equation. Our theory predicts that, once the drops are connected on a microscopic scale, the bridge grows linearly in time with a strong dependence on the contact angles. Without any adjustable parameters, we find quantitative agreement with all experiments
Original language | English |
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Article number | 184502 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Physical review letters |
Volume | 109 |
Issue number | 18 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Keywords
- IR-83133
- METIS-292948