On the coalescence of sessile drops with miscible liquids.

Sessile drops sitting on highly wettable solid substrates fuse in qualitatively different ways after contact, depending on the surface tension gradients between the mixing droplets. In early time evolution the drop coalescence can be fast or delayed (intermittent). In long time evolution a secondary drop formation can occur. We study numerically droplet dynamics during coalescence in two and three spatial dimensions, within a phase field approach. We discuss criteria to distinguish different coalescence regimes. A comparison with recent experiments will be done.

Delayed coalescence of droplets with miscible liquids: Lubrication and phase field theories.

Mixing of droplets with a body of different liquids shows an interesting behavior for small contact angles at solid substrate. The droplets interact with each other, a liquid exchange appears between the approaching drops owing to surface tension gradients at the droplets interface. But the drops remain separated for some seconds (up to minutes), until the merging into a single drop occurs (Langmuir 24, 6395 (2008)). We investigate this phenomenon using lubrication approximation and phase field approach. For both methods, 2D quantitative computer simulations for delayed fusion of perfectly miscible thin liquid films/droplets with low contact angles are reported.