Solid surface tension effects at small scales

Speaker: 
Robert Style Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yale University
Seminar Date: 
Friday, October 11, 2013 - 12:00pm
Location: 
BECTON SEMINAR ROOM See map
Prospect Street
New Haven, CT

The Classical continuum theories are very useful for predicting mechanical behaviour. For example, Young’s law predicts the equilibrium shapes of droplets, while contact mechanics predicts how surfaces stick together. We are interested in whether such results breakdown at microscopic and nanoscopic lengthscales, and we study this using confocal microscopy. I will show how solid surface tension dramatically changes small-scale behaviour below a critical elastocapillary lengthscale. I will explain how this can be important for nanobubbles, nanodroplets, contact and AFM measurements on soft materials. Our results have also inspired novel control techniques for manipulating droplets on flat surfaces.

Host: 
Paul Fleury
Seminar Announcement Brochure: 

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