Ternary Dewetting: The Flow Physics of Cleaning using Limited Resources

从粗糙、非均质和结构化的固体表面去除液体或除湿，是许多工程和工业过程的核心，从石油泄漏清理到家用织物和表面的清洁。到目前为止，大多数关于除湿的研究仅限于二元流体系统：在周围的气浴或液浴存在的情况下去除液滴。相反，这个项目关注的是在三元流体系统中实现除湿，在三元流体系统中，液滴同时与几个流体相相互作用。该项目的主要动机是调查这样的过程是否可以导致润湿性改变，这种改变更具局部性，可以在资源受限的环境(有限的水、聚合物和表面活性剂)中使用。

The removal of liquids, or dewetting, from rough, heterogeneous and structured solid surfaces is central to many engineering and industrial processes, from oil spill cleanup to the cleaning of fabrics and surfaces at home. To date, the majority of studies on dewetting have been limited to binary fluid systems: a droplet removal in the presence of a surrounding bath of gas or liquid. In contrast, this project is concerned with achieving dewetting in ternary-fluid systems, where the droplet is simultaneously interacting with several fluid phases. The project's overarching motivation is to investigate whether such a process can lead to wettability alteration that is more local and can be employed in resource-constrained environments (limited water, polymers and surfactants).