Dynamic Separation of a Sphere from a Flat or Sphere in the Presence of a Liquid Meniscus

Abstract

The presence of a liquid meniscus between solids can greatly affect the adhesion. A mathematical model is presented to investigate the dynamic separation process of a sphere from a flat or sphere with an intervening liquid meniscus under a constant applied force. For each case, the meniscus and viscous force are considered to account for the adhesion force in the separation process, and they are compared to show the dominated adhesion force in the process. Effects of various parameters such as the mass and radius of the sphere, viscosity, surface tension, and volume of the liquid on the separation time are investigated for the two configurations. It was found that the separation time is much longer when a sphere separates from a flat than from a sphere using the same parameters.

KEY WORDS:

• Dynamic Separation
• Meniscus Force
• Viscous Force
• Separation Time

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars (No. 50725518), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61005072), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (No. 20090450992), and the Natural Scientific Research Innovation Foundation in Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT. NSRIF. 2009020). The authors are grateful for their support. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the work by the reviewers.

Review led by Benjamin DeKoven