Meeting Abstract

S10.2-1  Tuesday, Jan. 7 09:50  From bouncing drops to draining bubbles: the influence of biological features on capillary flow BIRD, J.C.; Boston University jbird@bu.edu

Drops and bubbles are ubiquitous in the environment, as evidenced by falling rain or the white caps produced when bubbles are entrained by breaking waves. The physical forces of the flow can influence the surrounding ecology, and likewise, the surrounding ecology can influence the flow – sometimes in counter-intuitive ways. This talk focuses on two surface-tension phenomena: 1) the impact of water droplets on superhydrophobic biological surfaces, such as a lotus leaf, and 2) the draining of air bubbles in liquids with particulates, such as yeast. For example, it is well-known that the microtexture of lotus leaves cause impacting water drops to completely bounce off the surface in a matter of milliseconds. In this talk, it is demonstrated that when larger-scale textures are present, such as those found on butterfly wings, the flow is modified and the water droplets impact with shorter residence times than previously thought possible.