Congurational forces and shape of a sessile droplet on a rotating solid substrate


Vlado A. Lubarda, Kurt A. Talke




The shape of a uniformly rotating liquid droplet deposited on a solid substrate is determined by an iterative numerical integration of the governing nonlinear differential equation. The differential equation and the boundary conditions are derived by means of the variational analysis which delivers the expressions for the specific configurational force per unit area of the liquid/vapor interface, and the configurational force along the liquid/solid/vapor contact circle. An analytical proof for the orthogonality of the specific configurational force to the surface of the droplet is constructed. The effect of rotation on the droplet’s gyrostatic shape is discussed.