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Spontaneous Elastocapillary Winding of Thin Elastic Fibers in Contact with Bubbles
Adam Fortais1, Kathleen Charlesworth1, Rafael D Schulman1
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada.
Abstract:
We study the elastocapillary interaction between flexible microfibers in contact with bubbles trapped at the surface of a liquid bath. Microfibers placed on top of bubbles are found to migrate to and wrap into a coil around the perimeter of the bubble for certain bubble-fiber size combinations. The wrapping process is spontaneous: the coil spins atop the bubble, thereby drawing in excess fiber floating on the bath. A two-dimensional microfiber coil emerges which increases the lifetime of the bubbles. A simple model incorporating surface and bending energies captures the spontaneous winding process.
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