Capillary Slinky: Equilibrium and Dynamics of Droplets in a Soft Spring

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Hauptverfasser: Bhatt, Bidisha, Carlson, Andreas
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Bhatt, Bidisha
Carlson, Andreas
author_facet Bhatt, Bidisha
Carlson, Andreas
contents Springs can be found in many applications and biological systems, and when these are soft, they easily deform. At small scales, capillarity can induce a force leading to spring deformations when the elastocapillary number is small. We demonstrate through experiments the non-trivial equilibrium shape liquid droplets adopt in these soft springs, which form an annulus, Eruciform, and spherical shapes. When these droplets are set in motion, they display different flow regimes with significant dissipation generated by the internal rotational flow. The static and dynamics of droplets in such a capillary slinky is also used to demonstrate how surface tension can actuate springs by stretching/compression, while providing a way for active flow control in soft springs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_10366
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Capillary Slinky: Equilibrium and Dynamics of Droplets in a Soft Spring
Bhatt, Bidisha
Carlson, Andreas
Soft Condensed Matter
Fluid Dynamics
Springs can be found in many applications and biological systems, and when these are soft, they easily deform. At small scales, capillarity can induce a force leading to spring deformations when the elastocapillary number is small. We demonstrate through experiments the non-trivial equilibrium shape liquid droplets adopt in these soft springs, which form an annulus, Eruciform, and spherical shapes. When these droplets are set in motion, they display different flow regimes with significant dissipation generated by the internal rotational flow. The static and dynamics of droplets in such a capillary slinky is also used to demonstrate how surface tension can actuate springs by stretching/compression, while providing a way for active flow control in soft springs.
title Capillary Slinky: Equilibrium and Dynamics of Droplets in a Soft Spring
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10366