Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zhang, Yi, Tambe, Apurav, Pan, Zhao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13632
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Table of Contents:
  • A fundamental question in the physics of droplet--fiber interactions is: What is the maximum droplet volume a fiber can retain? While this problem has been studied for horizontal fibers and at the apex $Λ$-shaped bent fibers, it remains less explored for V-shaped bent fibers, despite their demonstrated advantages in engineering applications such as fog harvesting. This work investigates the capability of V-shaped fibers in retaining droplets against gravity. An analytical model to predict the maximum droplet volume on V-shaped fibers is developed based on free energy analysis, and validated against experimental data from five liquid--fiber pairs. The dependence of the maximum droplet volume on $α$ can be reasonably captured by the function $\cosβ/\cos\left(β-α/2\right)$, where $β$ denotes the droplet's off-axis angle. As $α$ increases from $0^\circ$ to $180^\circ$, the maximum droplet volume slightly decreases before entering a broad transition region around $α\approx 40^\circ$--$100^\circ$, and then increases at larger $α$.