Tunable Thin Elasto-Drops

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Eddi, Antonin, Perrard, Stéphane, Zhang, Jishen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Eddi, Antonin
Perrard, Stéphane
Zhang, Jishen
author_facet Eddi, Antonin
Perrard, Stéphane
Zhang, Jishen
contents We present an experimental method to fabricate centimetric thin elastic capsules with highly uniform thickness and negligible bending stiffness using silicone elastomers. In our experiments, the capsules thickness is tunable at fabrication, while internal pressure and hoop (circumferential) stress are adjustable via hydrostatic inflation once the capsules are filled and immersed in water. Capsules mechanics are probed through hydro-elastic waves generated by weak mechanical perturbations at the capsule interface. By analyzing the surface wave dynamics in the Fourier domain, we extract the in-plane stress and demonstrate that the hydro-elastic waves are exclusively governed by hoop stress. This \reponse{provides a controllable macroscopic analogue of liquid drops} characterised by an effective surface tension, allowing the capsules to be modeled as large-scale ``elasto-drops'' with an inflation and thickness tunable effective surface tension. \reponse{In this limit, bending stiffness is negligible over the experimentally relevant wavelengths, so that the shell dynamics are governed primarily by in-plane tension.} Our work demonstrates that elasto-drops serve as a robust model system for parametric studies of large-scale \reponse{analogues of} liquid drops with experimentally adjustable surface tension.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_03218
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tunable Thin Elasto-Drops
Eddi, Antonin
Perrard, Stéphane
Zhang, Jishen
Soft Condensed Matter
Fluid Dynamics
We present an experimental method to fabricate centimetric thin elastic capsules with highly uniform thickness and negligible bending stiffness using silicone elastomers. In our experiments, the capsules thickness is tunable at fabrication, while internal pressure and hoop (circumferential) stress are adjustable via hydrostatic inflation once the capsules are filled and immersed in water. Capsules mechanics are probed through hydro-elastic waves generated by weak mechanical perturbations at the capsule interface. By analyzing the surface wave dynamics in the Fourier domain, we extract the in-plane stress and demonstrate that the hydro-elastic waves are exclusively governed by hoop stress. This \reponse{provides a controllable macroscopic analogue of liquid drops} characterised by an effective surface tension, allowing the capsules to be modeled as large-scale ``elasto-drops'' with an inflation and thickness tunable effective surface tension. \reponse{In this limit, bending stiffness is negligible over the experimentally relevant wavelengths, so that the shell dynamics are governed primarily by in-plane tension.} Our work demonstrates that elasto-drops serve as a robust model system for parametric studies of large-scale \reponse{analogues of} liquid drops with experimentally adjustable surface tension.
title Tunable Thin Elasto-Drops
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.03218