Topological heterogeneity and evaporation dynamics of irregular water droplets

Yeseul Kim, Marta Gonçalves, Deok Ho Kim, Byung Mook Weon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Water droplets sitting between wires are ubiquitous in nature and industry, often showing irregular (non-spherical) droplet shapes. To understand their topological singularity and evaporation mechanism, measuring volume changes of irregular water droplets is essential but highly challenging for small-volume water droplets. Here we experimentally explore topological heterogeneity and evaporation dynamics for irregular water droplets between wires with four-dimensional X-ray microtomography that directly provides images in three spatial dimensions as a function of time, enabling us to get three-dimensional structural and geometric information changes with time. We find that the topological heterogeneity of an irregular droplet is due to the local contact lines and the evaporation dynamics of an irregular droplet is governed by the effective contact radius. This study may offer an opportunity to understand how the topological heterogeneity contributes to the evaporation dynamics of irregular water droplets.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number18700
JournalScientific reports
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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