2007/09/19 by R. Sattler, Sattler, R., Jens Eggers +5
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Adhesion, Friction, and Surface Interactions #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Plant Surface Properties and Treatments #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0709.2986
A movie as supplementary material is available at: http://www.uni-saarland.de/fak7/wagner/uploads/media/blistering.avi
arxiv created 2007/09/19 · openalex publication_date 2007/09/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
When a dilute polymer solution experiences capillary thinning, it forms an almost uniformly cylindrical thread, which we study experimentally. In the last stages of thinning, when polymers have become fully stretched, the filament becomes prone to instabilities, of which we describe two: A novel "breathing" instability, originating from the edge of the filament, and a sinusoidal instability in the interior, which ultimately gives rise to a "blistering" pattern of beads on the filament. We describe the linear instability with a spatial resolution of 80 nm in the disturbance amplitude. For sufficiently high polymer concentrations, the filament eventually separates out into a "solid" phase of entangled polymers, connected by fluid beads. A solid polymer fiber of about 100 nanometer thickness remains, which is essentially permanent.