Rupture of a Liquid Bridge between a Cone and a Plane

In
this work, a systematic experimental study of the rupture of
an axially symmetric liquid bridge between a cone and a plane was
performed, with focus on the volume distribution after break up. A
model based on the Young–Laplace equation is presented, and
its solutions are compared to experimental data. Cones and conical
cavities with different aperture angles were used in our experiments.
We found that this aperture influences the potential pinning of the
contact line, the meniscus shape, and therefore the liquid transfer.
For half aperture angles α < 70°, where no pinning was
observed, the liquid bridge slips off from the cone and almost no
transfer to the cone is observed. However, at α > 70°,
contact line pinning on the cone induces a net liquid transfer to
the cone at rupture. In the case of conical cavities, a maximum of
liquid transfer is observed for at α = 110°. The distance
at which the rupture of the liquid bridge occurs is also discussed.
The model can fairly predict the transfer ratio and the rupture height
of the liquid bridge.