Scaling analysis and SE simulation of the tilted cylinder-interface capillary interaction

Abstract

The capillary interaction induced by a tilted cylinder and interface is the basic configuration of many complex systems, such as micro-pillar arrays clustering, super-hydrophobicity of hairy surface, water-walking insects, and fiber aggregation. We systematically analyzed the scaling laws of tilt angle, contact angle, and cylinder radius on the contact line shape by SE simulation and experiment. The following in-depth analysis of the characteristic parameters (shift, stretch and distortion) of the deformed contact lines reveals the self-similar shape of contact line. Then a general capillary force scaling law is proposed to incredibly grasp all the simulated and experimental data by a quite straightforward ellipse approximation approach.