Evolution of nonconformal Landau-Levich-Bretherton films of partially wetting liquids

Journal article (2018)

Authors

M.T. Kreutzer ChemE/Chemical Engineering
M.S. Shah ChemE/Product and Process Engineering - AS
Pravien Parthiban National University of Singapore
S.A. Khan National University of Singapore
Department
ChemE/Chemical Engineering
Copyright: © 2018 M.T. Kreutzer, M.S. Shah, Pravien Parthiban, S.A. Khan
DOI
help_outline
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.014203
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

2018

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Department

ChemE/Chemical Engineering

Abstract

We experimentally and theoretically describe the dynamics of evolution and eventual rupture of Landau-Levich-Bretherton films of partially wetting liquids in microchannels in terms of nonplanar interface curvatures and disjoining pressure. While both the early-stage dynamics of film evolution and near-collapse dynamics of rupture are understood, we match these regimes and find theoretically that the dimensionless rupture time, Tr, scales with κ-10/7. Here, κ is the dimensionless curvature given by the ratio of the Laplace-pressure discontinuity that initiates film thinning to the initial strength of the disjoining pressure that drives the rupture. We experimentally verify the rupture times and highlight the crucial consequences of early film rupture in digital microfluidic contexts: pressure drop in segmented flow and isolation of droplets from the walls.