Session E13: Drops: Evaporation and Condensation

Dynamics of evaporative colloidal patterning

Evaporating suspensions of colloidal particles lead to the formation of a variety of patterns, ranging from rings left behind a coffee drop to periodic bands or uniform solid films deposited on a substrate suspended vertically in a container of the colloidal solution. To characterize the transition between different types of patterns, we develop minimal models of the liquid meniscus deformation due to the evaporation and colloidal deposition. A complementary multiphase model allows us to investigate the detailed dynamics of patterning in a drying solvent. This approach couples the inhomogeneous evaporation at the evolving liquid-air interface to the dynamics inside the suspension, i.e. the liquid flow, local variations of the particle concentration, and the propagation of the deposition front where the solute forms a wet, incompressible porous medium at high concentrations. The results of our theory are in good agreement with direct observations.   

Leidenfrost drops and micro-particles: organization and evaporation

We investigate the behavior of hydrophilic microparticles dropped into Leidenfrost drops. These particles appears to go through the drop until they reach the bottom surface of the drop where they are dewetted. Due to the evaporation of the drop, the surface of the drop decreases. Thus, the particles that are trapped at the surface of the drop due to the dewetting begin to cover more and more the drop. At a point, they even cover the whole surface of the drop. The superficial density of the particles at the surface is $\sim 0.8$ and the fraction of the beads that stay trapped at the surface until the cover is complete is always larger than $0.7$. We measured evaporation rates and compared the case of drops with and without particles. These evaporation rates are always decreased by the presence of the particles. This is due to the dewetting. Indeed, the effective surface of evaporation is decreased by the presence of particles at the surface. Thus, knowing how the evaporation is affected by the presence of the particles, we can measure contact angles at the lower surface of these levitating drops.   

A phase-field point-particle model for particle-laden interfaces

The irreversible attachment of solid particles to fluid interfaces is exploited in a variety of applications, such as froth flotation and Pickering emulsions. Critical in these applications is to predict particle transport in and near the interface, and the two-way coupling between the particles and the interface. While it is now possible to carry out particle-resolved simulations of these systems, simulating relatively large systems with many particles remains challenging. We present validation studies and preliminary results for a hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian simulation method, in which the dynamics of the interface is fully-resolved by a phase-field approach, while the particles are treated in the ``point-particle'' approximation. With this method, which represents a compromise between the competing needs of resolving particle and interface scale phenomena, we are able to simulate the adsorption of a large number of particles in the interface of drops, and particle-interface interactions during the spinodal coarsening of a multiphase system. While this method models the adsorption phenomenon efficiently and with reasonable accuracy, it still requires understanding subtle issues related to the modelling of hydrodynamic and capillary forces for particles in contact with interface.   

Condensation Dynamics on Mimicked Metal Matrix Hydrophobic Nanoparticle-Composites

Use of hydrophobic surfaces promotes condensation in the dropwise mode, which is significantly more efficient than the common filmwise mode. However, limited longevity of hydrophobic surface modifiers has prevented their wide spread use in industry. Recently, metal matrix composites (MMCs) having microscale hydrophobic heterogeneities dispersed in hydrophilic metal matrix have been proposed as durable and self-healing alternative to hydrophobic surface coatings interacting with deposited water droplets [1]. While dispersion of hydrophobic microparticles in MMC is likely to lead to surface flooding during condensation, the effect of dispersion of hydrophobic nanoparticles (HNPs) with size comparable to water nuclei critical radii and spacing is not obvious. To this end, we fabricated highly ordered arrays of Teflon nanospheres on silicon substrates that mimic the top surface of the MMCs with dispersed HNPs. We used light and electron microscopy to observe breath figures resulting from condensation on these surfaces at varied degrees of subcooling. Here, we discuss the relation between the droplet size distribution, Teflon nanosphere diameter and spacing, and condensation mode. \\[4pt] [1] Nosonovsky, M. et al. Langmuir 27 (2011).   

Parameterization of the scavenging coefficient for particle scavenging by drops

The removal of particles by drops occurs in many environmentally relevant scenarios such as particle fallout from rain, as well as in many industrial applications such as sprays for dust control in mines. In applications like these the ability of a drop to scavenge a particle is quantified by the scavenging coefficient, $E$, which is the fraction of particles removed. Though the physics controlling particle scavenging by drops suggests that $E$ is controlled by several dimensionless groups, $E$ is typically correlated to just the Stokes number. A survey of published experimental data shows significant scatter in plots of $E$ versus the Stokes number, occasionally exceeding three orders of magnitude. There is also a large discrepancy between the published theories for $E$. A parameterization study was conducted to ascertain if and how inclusion of other dimensionless groups could better collapse the extant data for $E$ and the results of that study are presented in this talk. Brief mention will also be made of recent experiments by the authors where $E$ was measured for a liquid drop suspended in an ultrasonic standing wave field, where the drop diameter and gas velocity can be independently varied unlike the more typical experiments where these quantities are coupled.