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Experiments on the spreading of silicone oil droplets on horizontal rotating plates
Author(s) -
Blank Mirja,
Ehrhard Peter
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
pamm
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1617-7061
DOI - 10.1002/pamm.201410322
Subject(s) - silicone oil , wetting , materials science , coating , schlieren , lubrication , layer (electronics) , composite material , viscosity , lubricant , spin coating , thin film , optics , nanotechnology , physics
The spreading of liquid films is involved in many coating processes, e.g. in the spin‐coating process. To achieve a high quality of the coating, the spreading liquid layer should be thin and homogeneous. Instabilities at the wetting front may lead to an inhomogeneous thickness of the coating layer and to uncoated areas. In this article the spreading of perfectly‐wetting silicone oil droplets with viscosity of 100 mPa s on rotating glass plates is discussed. A Schlieren system is set up to observe the wetted area and a traversed chromatic confocal distance sensor is used to measure the contour of the droplet. The experimental data are presented and compared to an analytical model which is derived from lubrication theory and valid for thin liquid layers. (© 2014 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)