Solid drops: large capillary deformations of immersed elastic rods

Under the effect of surface tension, a blob of liquid adopts a spherical shape when immersed in another fluid. We demonstrate experimentally that soft, centimeter-size elastic solids can exhibit a similar behavior: when immersed into a liquid, a gel having a low elastic modulus undergoes large, reve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2013-09, Vol.111 (11), p.114301-114301, Article 114301
Main Authors: Mora, Serge, Maurini, Corrado, Phou, Ty, Fromental, Jean-Marc, Audoly, Basile, Pomeau, Yves
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Condensed Matter
Engineering Sciences
Mechanics
Physics
Soft Condensed Matter
Solid mechanics
Structural mechanics
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Summary:Under the effect of surface tension, a blob of liquid adopts a spherical shape when immersed in another fluid. We demonstrate experimentally that soft, centimeter-size elastic solids can exhibit a similar behavior: when immersed into a liquid, a gel having a low elastic modulus undergoes large, reversible deformations. We analyze three fundamental types of deformations of a slender elastic solid driven by surface stress, depending on the shape of its cross section: a circular elastic cylinder shortens in the longitudinal direction and stretches transversally; the sharp edges of a square based prism get rounded off as its cross sections tend to become circular; and a slender, triangular based prism bends. These experimental results are compared to analysis and nonlinear simulations of neo-Hookean solids deformed by surface tension and are found to be in good agreement with each other.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.111.114301