Title | Forced Wetting Transition and Bubble Pinch-Off in a Capillary Tube |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2018 |
Authors | Zhao, B, Pahlavan, A, Cueto-Felgueroso, L, Juanes, R |
Journal | Physical Review Letters |
Issue | 8 |
Date Published | Jan-02-2018 |
ISSN | 0031-9007 |
Abstract | Immiscible fluid-fluid displacement in partial wetting continues to challenge our microscopic and macroscopic descriptions. Here, we study the displacement of a viscous fluid by a less viscous fluid in a circular capillary tube in the partial wetting regime. In contrast with the classic results for complete wetting, we show that the presence of a moving contact line induces a wetting transition at a critical capillary number that is contact angle dependent. At small displacement rates, the fluid-fluid interface deforms slightly from its equilibrium state and moves downstream at a constant velocity, without changing its shape. As the displacement rate increases, however, a wetting transition occurs: the interface becomes unstable and forms a finger that advances along the axis of the tube, leaving the contact line behind, separated from the meniscus by a macroscopic film of the viscous fluid on the tube wall. We describe the dewetting of the entrained film, and show that it universally leads to bubble pinch-off, therefore demonstrating that the hydrodynamics of contact line motion generate bubbles in microfluidic devices, even in the absence of geometric constraints. |
URL | https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.084501 |
DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.084501 |
Short Title | Phys. Rev. Lett. |