Droplets wetting on filament rails: Surface energy and morphology transition

Abstract

The morphology of liquid droplets wetting on filaments depends on the filament configuration, droplet volume, and contact angle. A stable morphology is the one that minimizes the potential energy of the droplet–filament system, while morphology transition may happen when an intermediate state exists which corresponds to a higher potential energy. This paper aims to explore such morphology transition of droplet wetting on filament rails made of two parallel identical microfilaments. Detailed numerical simulations were performed to extract the surface energy of the droplet–filament system at varying filament spacings, droplet volumes, and contact angles. Critical conditions of the morphology transition between two symmetrical wetting morphologies (i.e., liquid droplet bridge and barrel-shaped droplet) were determined. A family of characteristic curves in terms of the dimensionless droplet volume vs the filament spacing at varying contact angles was obtained, which can be used as a universal law to govern the morphology transition for such droplet–filament rail systems. The results and concepts presented in this work can be extended to broad wetting systems and utilized for the analysis and design of microfluidic devices and testers based on droplet–filament systems.