Coalescence of viscoelastic drops on a solid substrate

TL;DR

This paper explores how viscoelastic properties of polymer solution drops affect their coalescence on solid substrates, revealing the influence of viscoelasticity, characterized by the elastocapillary number, on the dynamics and profiles of the coalescing drops.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of viscoelastic effects on drop coalescence, emphasizing the role of the elastocapillary number and full viscoelastic modeling in the process.

Findings

Power law dependence of bridge height and radius on time.

Elastocapillary number influences coalescence dynamics.

Viscoelasticity significantly affects bridge profile and damping timescales.

Abstract

This study investigated the coalescence of polymer solution drops on the solid substrates. When two drops meet at their contact line on a substrate, the liquid bridge connecting the two drops increases in size with time. The height and radius of the liquid bridge have a power law dependence on time. In the early stage of drop coalescence, the exponents $\alpha$ and $\beta$ of the power law are influenced by the properties of the polymer solution. We argued that the balance between capillarity and viscoelasticity controls the process, where viscoelasticity must be considered in its full time and shear-rate dependency. As a simple proxy for the processes involved, the ratio of the polymer relaxation time to the viscous time of the drop, the elastocapillary ($Ec$), is instructive. In the vicinity of $Ec= 1$ the exponents showed a minimum and increased to lower and higher values of $Ec$. A similar dependency is observed for the damping timescales of the capillary waves. For high elastocapillary numbers, i.e. high polymer relaxation time, drop coalescence on short timescales behaved as in the low viscosity case. In addition, the bridge profile is influenced by a combination of factors including surface tension, viscosity and polymer stress. In summary, we have shown that drop coalescence is strongly influenced by the viscoelasticity of the drops.