Special Soft Matter Seminar: “Tangential and Normal Forces in Capillary Bridges”

The Syracuse University Department of Physics is pleased to welcome Moyosore Odunsi, Department of Physics, City University of New York for this week’s Soft Matter Seminar.

“Tangential and Normal Forces in Capillary Bridges”

Abstract:

“Capillary bridges form when a liquid stretches between two solid surfaces. The forces that arise from these bridges have significant effects on numerous processes such as the caking of powders and ink printing. In this talk I will present experimental and theoretical work that connects the forces of microlitre-scale bridges to their geometry. In the first part of the talk, I will describe the behavior of capillary bridges between flat plates with changing height. These bridges exhibit hysteresis that is governed by the pinning of the contact line. I will explain how this behavior can be modeled using a “resistive force” that restricts spreading. The second part of the talk will focus on sheared capillary bridges between spheres. We have designed a novel experimental technique to simultaneously measure both the shape of the bridge and the tangential and normal capillary forces exerted on the spheres. I will discuss results that show the strength of these forces are related to the asymmetry of the deformed bridge.”