Behavior of a Liquid Drop between Two Nonparallel Plates

Abstract

Liquid drops have shown interesting behaviors between two nonparallel plates. These plates may be fixed or movable relative to each other. In this work, we also explore these behaviors through a combination of theoretical and experimental investigations and obtain some new results. We show that when the two plates are fixed, different from the previous understanding, a lyophilic drop may not necessarily fill the corner of the two plates. We also demonstrate that it may fill the corner, when more liquid is added to the drop or when the top plate is lifted. Furthermore, we propose a physical model to interpret the shifting effect of a liquid drop. This effect appears when the drop is squeezed and relaxed between two nonparallel plates, and it has been used by some shorebirds to transport prey. On the basis of the proposed model, we have found three new phenomena related to the shifting effect