Journal article
Intrinsic instability of thin liquid films on nanostructured surfaces
Applied physics letters, v 109(11), p111601
12 Sep 2016
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
The instability of a thin liquid film on nanostructures is not well understood but is important in liquid-vapor two-phase heat transfer (e.g., thin film evaporation and boiling), lubrication, and nano-manufacturing. In thin film evaporation, the comparison between the non-evaporating film thickness and the critical film breakup thickness determines the stability of the film: the film becomes unstable when the critical film breakup thickness is larger than the non-evaporating film thickness. In this study, a closed-form model is developed to predict the critical breakup thickness of a thin liquid film on 2D periodic nanostructures based on the minimization of system free energy in the limit of a liquid monolayer. Molecular dynamics simulations are performed for water thin films on square nanostructures of varying depth and wettability, and the simulations agree with the model predictions. The results show that the critical film breakup thickness increases with the nanostructure depth and the surface wettability. The model developed here enables the prediction of the minimum film thickness for a stable thin film evaporation on a given nanostructure. Published by AIP Publishing.
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Details
- Title
- Intrinsic instability of thin liquid films on nanostructured surfaces
- Creators
- L. Sun - Penn State Erie, The Behrend CollegeH. Hu - Drexel UniversityA. A. Rokoni - Drexel UniversityY. Sun - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Applied physics letters, v 109(11), p111601
- Publisher
- American Institute of Physics
- Number of pages
- 5
- Grant note
- TG-CTS110056 / Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) DMR-1104835; CMMI-1401438 / U.S. National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics; College of Engineering
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000384400300009
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84987725245
- Other Identifier
- 991019167316604721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Physics, Applied