Evaporation of Drops on Two Parallel Fibers: Influence of the Liquid Morphology and Fiber Elasticity

We investigate experimentally the evaporation of liquid accumulated on a pair of parallel fibers, rigid or flexible. The liquid wetting the fibers can adopt two distinct morphologies: a compact drop shape, whose evaporation dynamics is similar to that of an isolated aerosol droplet, or a long liquid column of constant cross-section, whose evaporation dynamics depends upon the aspect ratio of the column. We thus find that the evaporation rate is constant for drops, while it increases strongly for columns as the interfiber distance decreases, and we propose a model to explain this behavior. When the fibers are flexible, the transition from drops to columns can be induced by the deformation of the fibers because of the capillary forces applied by the drop. Thus, we find that the evaporation rate increases with increasing flexibility. Furthermore, complex morphology transitions occur upon drying, which results in spreading of the drop as it evaporates.