Abstract

The evaporation of a sessile droplet is a multifaceted problem of enduring scientific interest that is key to a wide range of everyday and industrial situations, such as protein crystallography, surface patterning, ink-jet printing, and agrochemical spraying of plants. In this talk I shall review some of the recent developments in the study of evaporating droplets, focusing on situations in which relatively simple mathematical models can give new insights into this fascinating multidisciplinary problem, including the competitive evaporation of multiple droplets, the evaporation of a droplet on a non-planar substrate, and the effect of the spatial distribution of the local evaporative flux on the deposit left on the substrate by a particle-laden droplet. The results presented in this talk are the outcome of joint work with a large number of collaborators, including Drs Brian Duffy, David Pritchard and Alexander Wray (University of Strathclyde), Professor Khellil Sefiane (University of Edinburgh) and Professor Colin Bain (University of Durham), and past and present research students Gavin Dunn, Jutta Stauber, Feargus Schofield, Hannah-May D’Ambrosio, Laura Mills, David Craig and Henry Sharp, all of whose invaluable contributions are gratefully acknowledged.

Wilson, S.K., D’Ambrosio, H.-M. “Evaporation of sessile droplets” Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 55 481-509 (2023) doi: 10.1146/annurev-fluid-031822-013213

D’Ambrosio, H.-M., Wilson, S.K., Wray, A.W., Duffy, B.R. “The effect of the spatial variation of the evaporative flux on the deposition from a thin sessile droplet” J. Fluid Mech. 970 A1 (2023) doi: 10.1017/jfm.2023.503