Order-Disorder Structural Transitions in Mazes Built by Evaporating Drops
Résumé
We show that the evaporation of surfactant solutions confined in quasi-two-dimensional porous media creates micron-sized labyrinthine patterns composing the walls of a centimeter-sized maze. These walls are made of solid deposits formed during drying via a sequence of individual Haines jumps occurring at the pore scale. We rationalize this process driven by simple iterative rules with a cellular automaton that acts as a maze generator. This model well describes the formation dynamics and final structure of an experimental maze as functions of the wettability heterogeneities of a porous medium and its geometry. Also, our findings unveil the crucial role of two geometric dimensionless quantities that control the structural order of a maze.
Domaines
Physique [physics]Origine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
---|
Loading...