Modelling unidirectional liquid spreading on slanted microposts

Journal article

A lattice Boltzmann algorithm is used to simulate the slow spreading of drops on a surface patterned with slanted micro-posts. Gibb's pinning of the interface on the sides or top of the posts leads to unidirectional spreading over a wide range of contact angles and inclination angles of the posts. Regimes for spreading in no, one or two directions are identified, and shown to agree well with a two-dimensional theory proposed in Chu, Xiao and Wang. A more detailed numerical analysis of the contact line shapes allows us to understand deviations from the two dimensional model, and to identify the shapes of the pinned interfaces. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Authors: Cavalli, A; Blow, M; Yeomans, J

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: SOFT MATTER
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 29
• Pages: 6862-6866
• Publication date: 2013-01-01
• DOI: 10.1039/c3sm00043e
• EISSN: 1744-6848
• ISSN: 1744-683X
• Language: English