title: Compound Droplets on Fibers.
abstract: Droplets on fibers have been extensively studied in the recent years. Although the equilibrium shapes of simple droplets on fibers are well established, the situation becomes more complex for compound fluidic systems. Through experimental and numerical investigations, we show herein that compound droplets can be formed on fibers and that they adopt specific geometries. We focus on the various contact lines formed at the meeting of the different phases and we study their equilibrium state. It appears that, depending on the surface tensions, the triple contact lines can remain separate or merge together and form quadruple lines. The nature of the contact lines influences the behavior of the compound droplets on fibers. Indeed, both experimental and numerical results show that, during the detachment process, depending on whether the contact lines are triple or quadruple, the characteristic length is the inner droplet radius or the fiber radius.
authors.affiliation: †GRASP, Physics Department, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Floriane
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Weyer
authors.affiliation: ‡Institute of Applied Materials - Computational Materials Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Marouen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ben Said
authors.affiliation: §Institute of Materials and Processes, University of Applied Sciences, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hötzer
authors.affiliation: ‡Institute of Applied Materials - Computational Materials Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berghoff
authors.affiliation: †GRASP, Physics Department, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dreesen
authors.affiliation: ‡Institute of Applied Materials - Computational Materials Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.|§Institute of Materials and Processes, University of Applied Sciences, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Britta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nestler
authors.affiliation: †GRASP, Physics Department, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vandewalle