Proper roughness design is important in realizing surfaces with fully tunable wetting properties. Engineering surface roughness boils down to an energy barrier optimization problem, in which the geometric features of roughness serve as the optimization parameters. Computations of energy barriers, separating admissible equilibrium wetting states on patterned surfaces, have been demonstrated utilizing fine-scale simulators (e.g., lattice-Boltzmann for mesoscale and molecular dynamics for microscale simulations), however with substantial computational requirements. Here, by solving an augmented Young–Laplace equation with a disjoining pressure term, we demonstrate accurate and efficient computations of equilibrium shapes of entire millimeter sized droplets on patterned surfaces. In particular, by adopting a natural parameterization of the Young–Laplace equation along the liquid/air and liquid/solid interfaces, the tedious implementation of the Young's contact angle boundary condition at multiple three phase contact lines is bypassed. We, thus, enable the computation of wetting transition energy barriers, separating the well-known Cassie–Baxter and Wenzel states, as well as intermediate states, but with negligible computational cost. We demonstrate the method's efficiency by computing the equilibrium of droplets on stripe-patterned surfaces, and compare the results with mesoscopic lattice Boltzmann simulations. Our computationally efficient continuum-level analysis can be readily applied to patterned surfaces with increased and unstructured geometric complexity, and straightforwardly coupled with shape optimizers towards the design of surfaces with desirable wetting behavior.

The complicated dynamics of the contact line of a moving droplet on a solid substrate often hamper the efficient modeling of microfluidic systems. In particular, the selection of the effective boundary conditions, specifying the contact line motion, is a controversial issue since the microscopic physics that gives rise to this displacement is still unknown. Here, a sharp interface, continuum-level, novel modeling approach, accounting for liquid/solid micro-scale interactions assembled in a disjoining pressure term, is presented. By following a unified conception (the model applies both to the liquid/solid and the liquid/ambient interfaces), the friction forces at the contact line, arXiv:1601.06540v1 [cond-mat.soft]

Aiming to illuminate mechanisms of wetting transitions on geometrically patterned surfaces induced by the electrowetting phenomenon, we present a novel modeling approach that goes beyond the limitations of the Lippmann equation and is even relieved from the implementation of the Young contact angle boundary condition. We employ the equations of the capillary electrohydrostatics augmented by a disjoining pressure term derived from an effective interface potential accounting for solid/liquid interactions. Proper parametrization of the liquid surface profile enables efficient simulation of multiple and reconfigurable three-phase contact lines (TPL) appearing when entire droplets undergo wetting transitions on patterned surfaces. The liquid/ambient and the liquid/solid interfaces are treated in a unified context tackling the assumption that the liquid profile is wedge-shaped at any three-phase contact line. In this way, electric field singularities are bypassed, allowing for accurate electric field and liquid surface profile computation, especially in the vicinity of TPLs. We found that the invariance of the microscopic contact angle in electrowetting systems is valid only for thick dielectrics, supporting published experiments. By applying our methodology to patterned dielectrics, we computed all admissible droplet equilibrium profiles, including Cassie-Baxter, Wenzel, and mixed wetting states. Mixed wetting states are computed for the first time in electrowetting systems, and their relative stability is presented in a clear and instructive way.

This work investigates the dynamics of droplet interaction with smooth or structured solid surfaces using a novel sharp-interface scheme which allows the efficient modelling of multiple dynamic contact lines. The liquid-gas and liquid-solid interfaces are treated in a unified context and the dynamic contact angle emerges simply due to the combined action of the disjoining and capillary pressure, and viscous stresses without the need of an explicit boundary condition or any requirement for the predefinition of the number and position of the contact lines. The latter, as it is shown, renders the model able to handle interfacial flows with topological changes, e.g. in the case of an impinging droplet on a structured surface. Then it is possible to predict, depending on the impact velocity, whether the droplet will fully or partially impregnate the structures of the solid, or will result in a 'fakir', i.e. suspended, state. In the case of a droplet sliding on an inclined substrate, we also demonstrate the built-in capability of our model to provide a prediction for either static or dynamic contact angle hysteresis. We focus our study on hydrophobic surfaces and examine the effect of the geometrical characteristics of the solid surface. It is shown that the presence of air inclusions trapped in the micro-structure of a hydrophobic substrate (Cassie-Baxter state) result in the decrease of contact angle hysteresis and in the increase of the droplet migration velocity in agreement with experimental observations for super-hydrophobic surfaces. Moreover, we perform 3D simulations which are in line with the 2D ones regarding the droplet mobility and also indicate that the contact angle hysteresis may be significantly affected by the directionality of the structures with respect to the droplet motion.

Collapse (Cassie to Wenzel) wetting transitions impede the electrostatically induced reversible modification of wettability on superhydrophobic surfaces, unless a strong external actuation (e.g., substrate heating) is applied. Here we show that collapse transitions can be prevented (the droplet remains suspended on the solid roughness protrusions) when the electrostatic force, responsible for the wetting modification, is smoothly distributed along the droplet surface. The above argument is initially established theoretically and then verified experimentally.