Study of Gravitation Effect on Rupture Distance of Liquid Bridge between Two Flat Substrates
重力影响下板间液桥断裂距离研究

Rupture distance of millimeter-scale liquid bridge between two flat substrates was experimentally and numerically studied. Quantitative relations between the rupture distances and the volume of liquid bridge and wetting property of solid surface were obtained under two conditions: with and without gravitation effect, respectively. Results show that gravitation has more effect on rupture distance along with the characteristic scale of liquid bridge increase. When characteristic scale has reached capillary length, the effect of gravitation on rupture distance between hydrophilic surfaces under gravitation are as high as more than 11%, and even more than 20% between hydrophobic surfaces. The quasi-static stretch-rupture process of liquid bridge was well simulated by Surface Evolver software. It indicates that the gravitation effect on rupture distance of liquid bridge is not completely ignored even though the characteristic scale of liquid bridge is shorter than capillary length.