The properties of the coexisting bulk gas and liquid phases of a polydisperse fluid depend not only on the prevailing temperature but also on the overall parent density. As a result, a polydisperse fluid near a wall will exhibit density-driven wetting transitions inside the coexistence region. We propose a likely topology for the wetting phase diagram, which we test using Monte Carlo simulation...

Despite widespread discussion, the role of van der Waals dispersion forces in wetting remains unclear. Here we show that nonlocal correlations contribute substantially to the water-metal bond and that this is an important factor in governing the relative stabilities of wetting layers and 3D bulk ice. Because of the greater polarizability of the substrate metal atoms, nonlocal correlations betwe...

A thin quantum well called the wetting layer is created whenever self-assembled quantum dots are fabricated. The wetting layer is highly non-uniform, thereby producing potential uctuations that in uence the physics of the quantum dots. Here, we report several e ects that are caused by such uctuations. In particular, light-induced spectral di usion on a very long time scale and interdot excitati...

We provide an overview of our recent advances in the manipulation of wetting in inverse-opal photonic crystals. Exploiting photonic crystals with spatially patterned surface chemistry to confine the infiltration of fluids to liquidspecific spatial patterns, we developed a highly selective scheme for colorimetry, where organic liquids are distinguished based on wetting. The high selectivity of w...

Abstract. We investigate the asymptotic behaviour of the wetting front arising from unsaturated flow in porous media wherein the liquid saturation θ obeys a nonlinear diffusion equation having moisture diffusivity that is an exponential function D(θ) = Do exp(βθ). For values of the physical parameters corresponding to actual porous media, the diffusivity at the residual value of saturation is D...

A significant wetting trend since the early 1980s in Tibetan Plateau (TP) is most conspicuous in central and eastern Asia as shown in the instrumental data and the long-term moisture sensitive tree rings. We found that anomalies in the large-scale oceanic and atmospheric circulations do not play a significant role on the wetting trend in TP. Meanwhile, the weak correlation between local tempera...

Wetting agents can be used to increase infiltration rates into hydrophobic (water repellent) soils. A field test was conducted on a soil classified as Tujunga stony sandy loam, which was found to be extremely hydrophobic to learn more about the effectiveness of wetting agents. The area is located near Fontana. The land had been farmed in small grain crops years ago and then was used as a hog ra...

Wood I-joists are often left uncovered and exposed to the weather during construction, allowing the oriented strandboard and laminated veneer lumber in these systems to be adversely affected by water absorption. Manufacturers typically specify that these materials be protected from wetting, but this can be difficult in wetter climates. There are few studies examining the potential effects of we...

In this study the wetting behavior of converging-diverging and diverging-converging capillaries is investigated numerically using an in-house written, finite-element code. An interface tracking procedure based on the predicted change in the total liquid volume, to update the interface location, and Cox's formulation, to determine the dynamic contact angle and the interface shape, is proposed an...

A mean-field theory is presented which describes the basic observations of recent experiments revealing rich wetting behaviour of n-alkane/methanol mixtures at the liquid-vapour interface. The theory is based on a microscopic lattice-gas model from which a Cahn-Landau approach is derived. Besides the physics associated with the short-range components of the intermolecular interactions, the effe...