Droplet capture in a fiber array

Droplets interacting with fiber arrays is ubiquitous in nature, textiles, microelectromechanical devices, and fog harvesting. The phenomena of droplet impact on an equidistant array of fibers is experimentally investigated. Drop tower tests are performed to characterize the droplet dynamics in the absence of the effects of gravity which could deform fibers and bias equilibrium configurations. Results show that contact line dissipation is largely responsible for arresting the droplet. Additionally, the penetration length is affected by fiber flexibility. A model is developed predicting the droplet penetration dynamics which shows good agreement with experiments.