Capillary stretching of fibers

We study the interaction of a finite volume of liquid with two parallel thin flexible fibers. A tension along the fibers is imposed and may be varied. We report two morphologies, i.e. two types of wet adhesion: a weak capillary adhesion, where a liquid drop bridges the fibers, and a strong elastocapillary adhesion where the liquid is spread between two collapsed fibers. We show that geometry, capillarity and stretching are the key parameters at play. We describe the collapse and detachment of the fibers as a function of two nondimensional parameters, arising from the geometry of the system and a balance between capillary and stretching energies. In addition, we show that the morphology, thus the capillary adhesion, can be controlled by changing the tension within the fibers. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2015