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Lateral retention of water droplets on solid surfaces without gravitational effect

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Abstract

Gravity is commonly considered negligible when the surface tension is dominant; i.e., the Bond number is less than 1. In this paper, however, the authors present a technique in which drops slide over surfaces with zero effective gravity. Our study compared the sliding motion of water drops on hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces in scenarios: one in which effective gravity = 1 (1 g) and one in which it = 0 (0 g). The authors found that the lateral retention force was greater under 1 g than it was under 0 g. Also, the results showed that retention forces calculated by Furmidge equation are higher than the measured forces.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Center for Midstream Management and Science (CMMS) of Lamar University. The authors also appreciate the Center for Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (CICE) at Lamar University for providing lab space.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dan F. Smith Department of Chemical Engineering, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, 77710, USA

    Sirui Tang & Rafael Tadmor

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, 77710, USA

    Chun-Wei Yao & Divine Sebastian

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 8410501, Israel

    Rafael Tadmor

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  1. Sirui Tang
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  2. Chun-Wei Yao
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  3. Rafael Tadmor
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  4. Divine Sebastian
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chun-Wei Yao.

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The supplementary material for this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2020.40.

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Tang, S., Yao, CW., Tadmor, R. et al. Lateral retention of water droplets on solid surfaces without gravitational effect. MRS Communications 10, 449–454 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2020.40

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