Speaker
Sebastian Aland, TU Freiberg, HTW Dresden
Abstract
Wetting of flexible substrates (i.e. soft wetting) plays a major role in a broad variety of phenomena. The interaction between droplets and elastic objects is at small length scales dominated by surface tension forces. The interplay between wetting dynamics and structure mechanics leads to a range of fascinating phenomena from stick-slip motion to droplet-mediated remodeling of biological membranes.
In this talk, we present a computational framework that combines a sharp-interface model for elastic solids with a diffuse-interface approach for two-phase fluids, enabling the exploration of complex elastocapillary interactions. Our numerical method employs adaptive, fitted finite element meshes with arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) mesh motion, ensuring robustness and geometric flexibility.
We validate the method through benchmark tests and demonstrate its accuracy and versatility. In particular, we recover analytical predictions for droplet surfing on Kelvin–Voigt substrates and offer a mechanistic explanation for the experimentally observed stick-slip transitions. Finally, we showcase novel simulations of droplet-mediated remodeling of biological membranes, revealing capillarity-driven phenomena such as droplet wrapping, endocytosis-like invagination, and an inverted Cheerios effect.