Stabilizing rôle of a curvature correction to line tension

Keywords

Code:
1/2008
Title:
Stabilizing rôle of a curvature correction to line tension
Date:
Wednesday 9th January 2008
Author(s):
Rosso, Riccardo: Verani, Marco
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Abstract:
We study the effects that a curvature correction to a bare value of the line tension has on the equilibrium and stability of droplets laid upon a rigid substrate. In the simple case of cylindric liquid bridges we prove that even a tiny curvature correction prevents the onset of wildly oscillating perturbations that would make the contact line unstable if a negative line tension were present alone. However, if the curvature correction is not large enough, unstable modes can persist that are not related to the classical Rayleigh instability.