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Elastocapillary levelling of thin viscous films on soft substrates

Marco Rivetti1, Vincent Bertin2, Thomas Salez2,3, Chung-Yuen Hui4, Christine Linne1, Maxence Arutkin2, Haibin Wu4, Elie Raphaël2, and Oliver Bäumchen1,*

  • 1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS), Am Faßberg 17, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
  • 2Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS 7083 Gulliver, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France
  • 3Global Station for Soft Matter, Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0808, Japan
  • 4Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA

  • *oliver.baeumchen@ds.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 2, 094001 – Published 1 September, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.2.094001

Abstract

A thin liquid film with nonzero curvature at its free surface spontaneously flows to reach a flat configuration, a process driven by Laplace pressure gradients and resisted by the liquid's viscosity. Inspired by recent progresses on the dynamics of liquid droplets on soft substrates, we here study the relaxation of a viscous film supported by an elastic foundation. Experiments involve thin polymer films on elastomeric substrates, where the dynamics of the liquid-air interface is monitored using atomic force microscopy. A theoretical model that describes the coupled evolution of the solid-liquid and the liquid-air interfaces is also provided. In this soft-levelling configuration, Laplace pressure gradients not only drive the flow, but they also induce elastic deformations on the substrate that affect the flow and the shape of the liquid-air interface itself. This process represents an original example of elastocapillarity that is not mediated by the presence of a contact line. We discuss the impact of the elastic contribution on the levelling dynamics and show the departure from the classical self-similarities and power laws observed for capillary levelling on rigid substrates.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 2, 094001– Published 1 September, 2017
  • Received 31 March 2017
Article part of CHORUS

©2017 American Physical Society

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