We investigate the levitation of a drop gently deposited onto the inner wall of a rotating hollow cylinder. For a sufficient velocity of the wall, the drop steadily levitates over a thin air film and reaches a stable angular position in the cylinder, where the drag and lift balance the weight of the drop. Interferometric measurement yields the three-dimensional (3D) air film thickness under the drop and reveals the asymmetry of the profile along the direction of the wall motion. A two-dimensional (2D) model is presented which explains the levitation mechanism, captures the main characteristics of the air film shape and predicts two asymptotic regimes for the film thickness $h_0$: For large drops $h_0\sim\ca^{2/3}κ_b^{-1}$, as in the Bretherton problem, where $\ca$ is the capillary number based on the air viscosity and $κ_b$ is the curvature at the bottom of the drop. For small drops $h_0\sim\ca^{4/5}(aκ_b)^{4/5}κ_b^{-1}$, where $a$ is the capillary length.
In the fluid transport of particles, it is generally expected that heavy particles carried by a laminar fluid flow moving downward will also move downward. We establish a theory to show, however, that particles can be dynamically levitated and lifted by interacting vortices in such flows, thereby moving against gravity and the asymptotic direction of the flow, even when they are orders of magnitude denser than the fluid. The particle levitation is rigorously demonstrated for potential flows and supported by simulations for viscous flows. We suggest that this counterintuitive effect has potenti…
We consider a spherical particle levitating above a liquid bath owing to the Leidenfrost effect, where the vapour of either the bath or sphere forms an insulating film whose pressure supports the sphere's weight. Starting from a reduced formulation based on a lubrication-type approximation, we use matched asymptotics to describe the morphology of the vapour film assuming that the sphere is small relative to the capillary length (small Bond number) and that the densities of the bath and sphere are comparable. We find that this regime is comprised of two formally infinite sequences of distinguis…
When a volatile drop impacts on a superheated solid, air drainage and vapor generation conspire to create an intermediate gas layer that delays or even prevents contact between the liquid and the solid. In this article, we use high-speed synchronized reflection interference and total internal reflection imaging to measure the short-time dynamics of the intermediate gas film and to probe the transition between levitation and contact. We observe that the substrate temperature strongly affects the vertical position of the liquid-gas interface and that the dynamic Leidenfrost transition is influen…
We investigate velocity variations inside of and surrounding a gravity driven drop impacting on and moving through a confining orifice, wherein the effects of edge geometry (round- vs. sharp-edged) and surface wettability (hydrophobic vs. hydrophilic) of the orifice are considered. Using refractive index matching and time-resolved PIV, we quantify the redistribution of energy in the drop and the surrounding fluid during the drop's impact and motion through a round-edged orifice. The measurements show the importance of a) drop kinetic energy transferred to and dissipated within the surrounding …
When deposited on a hot bath, volatile drops are observed to stay in levitation: the so-called Leidenfrost effect. Here, we discuss drop dynamics in an inverse Leidenfrost situation where room-temperature drops are deposited on a liquid nitrogen pool, and levitate on a vapor film generated by evaporation of the bath. In the seconds following deposition, we observe that the droplets start to glide on the bath along a straight path, only disrupted by elastic bouncing close to the edges of the container. Initially at rest, these self-propelled drops accelerate within a few seconds and reach veloc…
Lubricated surfaces have shown promise in numerous applications where impinging foreign droplets must be removed easily; however, before they can be widely adopted, the problem of lubricant depletion, which eventually leads to decreased performance, must be solved. Despite recent progress, a quantitative mechanistic explanation for lubricant depletion is still lacking. Here, we first explained the shape of a droplet on a lubricated surface by balancing the Laplace pressures across interfaces. We then showed that the lubricant film thicknesses beneath, behind, and wrapping around a moving dropl…
We consider a liquid drop placed on a smooth homogeneous solid substrate as it spreads from rest to its eventual equilibrium state. The problem is studied numerically in the framework of a model where the contact angle formed by the drop's free surface with the substrate is not prescribed as a function of the contact-line speed and has to be found as part of the solution. It is shown that in this spontaneous spreading, as the drop starts moving and the contact line accelerates, the dynamic contact angle decreases with the contact-line speed, which is in line with what experimental observations…
We propose a generic model for thin films and shallow drops of a polar active liquid that have a free surface and are in contact with a solid substrate. The model couples evolution equations for the film height and the local polarization profile in the form of a gradient dynamics supplemented with active stresses and fluxes. A wetting energy for a partially wetting liquid is incorporated allowing for motion of the liquid-solid-gas contact line. This gives a consistent basis for the description of drops of dense bacterial suspensions or compact aggregates of living cells on solid substrates. As…
A numerical method for simulating three-phase flows with moving contact lines on arbitrarily complex surfaces is developed in the framework of lattice Boltzmann method. In this method, the immiscible three-phase flow is modeled through a multiple-relaxation-time color-gradient model, which not only allows for a full range of interfacial tensions but also produces stable outcomes for a wide range of viscosity ratios. A characteristic line model is introduced to implement the wetting boundary condition, which is not only easy to implement but also able to handle arbitrarily complex boundaries wi…
Droplets move on substrates with a spatio-temporal wettability pattern as generated, for example, on light-switchable surfaces. To study such cases, we implement the boundary-element method to solve the governing Stokes equations for the fluid flow field inside and on the surface of a droplet and supplement it by the Cox-Voinov law for the dynamics of the contact line. Our approach reproduces the relaxation of an axisymmetric droplet in experiments, which we initiate by instantaneously switching the uniform wettability of a substrate quantified by the equilibrium contact angle. In a step profi…
We consider the dynamics of thin two-dimensional viscous droplets on chemically heterogeneous surfaces moving under the combined effects of slip, mass transfer and capillarity. The resulting long-wave evolution equation for the droplet thickness is treated analytically via the method of matched asymptotic expansions in the limit of slow mass transfer rates, quasi-static dynamics and vanishingly small slip lengths to deduce a lower-dimensional system of integrodifferential equations for the two moving fronts. We demonstrate that the predictions of the deduced system agree excellently with simul…
Non-coalescence of sessile drops from different but miscible liquids: Hydrodynamic analysis of the twin drop contour as self stabilizing, traveling wave
We study spreading of a droplet, with insoluble surfactant covering its capillary surface, on a textured substrate. In this process, the surfactant-dependent surface tension dominates the behaviors of the whole dynamics, particularly the moving contact lines. This allows us to derive the full dynamics of the droplets laid by the insoluble surfactant: (i) the moving contact lines, (ii) the evolution of the capillary surface, (iii) the surfactant dynamics on this moving surface with a boundary condition at the contact lines and (iv) the incompressible viscous fluids inside the droplet. Our deriv…
The dynamic frictional force between solid surfaces in relative motion differs from the static force needed to initiate motion, but this distinction is not usually thought to occur for liquid drops moving on a solid. Recent experiments [Gao, et al., Nature Phys. {\bf 114}, 191 (2018)] have challenged this view, and claim to observe an analog of solid-on-solid friction for sliding drops. We use molecular dynamic simulations to investigate the forces that moving liquids exert on solids in several situations. In contrast to the indirect techniques required in laboratory experiments, the forces in…
When a fast-moving drop impacts onto a smooth substrate, splashing will be produced at the edge of the expanding liquid sheet. This ubiquitous phenomenon lacks a fundamental understanding. Combining experiment with model, we illustrate that the ultrathin air film trapped under the expanding liquid front triggers splashing. Because this film is thinner than the mean free path of air molecules, the interior airflow transfers momentum with an unusually high velocity comparable to the speed of sound and generates a stress 10 times stronger than the airflow in common situations. Such a large stress…
Equilibrium contact angle of liquid drops over horizontal surfaces has been modeled using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). The model is capable of accurate implementation of contact angles to stationary and moving contact lines. In this scheme, the desired value for stationary or dynamic contact angle is used to correct the profile near the triple point. This is achieved by correcting the surface normals near the contact line and also interpolating the drop profile into the boundaries. Simulations show that a close match to the chosen contact angle values can be achieved for both station…
We study the dynamics of a droplet moving on an inclined rough surface in the absence of inertial and viscous stress effects. In this case, the dynamics of the droplet is a purely geometric motion in terms of the wetting domain and the capillary surface. Using a single graph representation, we interpret this geometric motion as a gradient flow on a Hilbert manifold. We propose unconditionally stable first/second order numerical schemes to simulate this geometric motion of the droplet, which is described using motion by mean curvature coupled with moving contact lines. The schemes are based on …
The stability of floating drops on the liquid surface of the same liquid is considered in terms of viscous drainage theory. We have expressed the minimal thickness of the air film, separating the drop from the liquid surface, and the lifetime of the drop through the Hamaker constant, characterizing the intensity of van-der-Waals forces which make the air film unstable. It is shown that a horizontally moving or just rotating drop can have an infinite lifetime when the drop surface velocity exceeds some critical value. A spectacular example of a long-living rotating paraffin droplet on a burning…
When a volatile droplet is deposited on a floating swellable sheet, it becomes asymmetric, lobed and mobile. We describe and quantify this phenomena that involves nonequilibrium swelling, evaporation and motion, working together to realize a self-excitable spatially extended oscillator. Solvent penetration causes the film to swell locally and eventually buckle, changing its shape and the drop responds by moving. Simultaneously, solvent evaporation from the swollen film causes it to regain its shape once the droplet has moved away. The process repeats and leads to complex pulsatile spinning and…
