2007/10/26 by Krishnacharya Khare, Martin Brinkmann, Bruce M. Law +3 · 1 citation
Engineering · #Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer #Fluid Dynamics and Thin Films #Heat Transfer and Boiling Studies
paper · doi:10.1021/la701515u
openalex publication_date 2007/10/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The dewetting of liquid filaments in linear grooves of a triangular cross section is studied experimentally and theoretically. Homogeneous filaments of glassy polystyrene (PS) are prepared in triangular grooves in a nonequilibrium state. At elevated temperatures, the molten PS restores its material contact angle with the substrate. Liquid filaments with a convex liquid-vapor interface decay into isolated droplets with a characteristic spacing depending on the wedge geometry, wettability, and filament width. This instability is driven by the interplay of local filament width and Laplace pressure and constitutes a wide class of 1D instabilities that also include the Rayleigh-Plateau instability as a special case. Our results show an accurately exponential buildup of the instability, suggesting that fluctuations have a minor influence in our system.