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Published on: June 15, 2012
Elastocapillary lifting and encapsulation of water by a triangular elastic film under gravity
Kyoko Shibata1, Hana Kanda2, Yoshimi Tanaka3
1Department of Applied Physics, Tokyo University of Science, 6-3-1 Nijuku, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo 125-8585, Japan. ysumino@rs.tus.ac.jp.
None:
We investigate the encapsulation of water by a thin elastic film as a minimal model of elastocapillary self-folding with fluid transport. An equilateral triangular polydimethylsiloxane film is lifted quasi-statically from a water surface, while its side length and thickness are systematically varied. Depending on these parameters, the film exhibits three distinct morphologies: folding, recoiling, and liquid encapsulation. We show that the morphology is governed by the interplay of surface, gravitational, and bending energies, and that encapsulation occurs only within a narrow parameter region where the elastocapillary, elastogravity, and capillary length scales become comparable. This provides a simple physical criterion for liquid encapsulation by elastic films.
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