Droplet impacts represent an important area of research of interaction between fluids and solids. The outcome of the splashing dynamics is determined by a number of factors, namely- among others- the structure of the solids surface and the solids Young modulus. The physical properties of magnetorheological elastomers are influenced by the presence of a magnetic field, which we can employ to alter the solid's stiffness. We observed the splashing dynamics of droplets on laser microstructured surfaces of magnetorheological elastomers by means of a calibrated experimental setup based on high speed shadowgraphy image capture. We discovered that we can speed up the spreading regime in the direction of linear microstructured channels on the impact surfaces independently of the presence of a magnetic field. By applying a magnetic field we increased the magnetorheological elastomer's Young modulus and thus splashing occured at a lower impact velocity.
|