Abstract
The capillary force of a liquid drop has a great impact on the mechanical behaviors of a polymer microtube. To further explore this capillary effect, we examine the buckling condition and finite deformation of a hollow microfiber surrounded by a droplet. The Eulerian rod model and thin-walled shell model are both adopted to predict the critical value of the capillary force acting on the microfiber. According to the Mooney-Rivlin model, we calculate the true axial stress of the microtube under the combined action of surface tension and Laplace pressure. The numerical results show that the value of the true axial stress is closely related to the Young’s contact angle, droplet volume and characteristic sizes of the microtube. Our findings address that proper control over surface wettability may improve the performance optimization of micro-devices, and these analyses may produce ideas in the areas of nanofabrication, electrospinning and tissue engineering.
Highlights
The capillary force causes a plethora of interesting phenomena in nature, which plays an essential role in biological activities
The material of the elastic tube is assumed as vulcanized rubber compounds, whose material constants are set as c1=0.2 MPa and c2=0.1 MPa,[26] and the surface tension is selected as γ=0.072 N/m
The critical load for the buckling of the microfiber is determined in consideration of the surface tension and the induced Laplace pressure
Summary
The capillary force causes a plethora of interesting phenomena in nature, which plays an essential role in biological activities. The most intriguing fact is the superhydrophobicity of plants, such as rose petals, lotus leaves and lady’s mantles possess a strong capability to repel water and dusts, and this phenomenon is often termed as the “lotus effect” or “self-cleaning effect”.7–9
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