Varghese, Nonu;
Stone, Corinne A;
Quetzeri-Santiago, Miguel A;
Castrejón-Pita, J Rafael;
(2025)
Droplet impact dynamics on stretched textiles.
Scientific Reports
, 15
, Article 6496. 10.1038/s41598-025-89855-8.
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Abstract
Preventing droplets from penetrating fabrics is critical in surgical wards and the battlefield, where biological and chemical hazards are dispersed and transmitted in droplet form. Here, we study the interaction between droplets and a nylon textile using high-speed imaging. We explore various droplet impact velocities and liquids to understand the influence of liquid characteristics on the impact behaviour. Importantly, we investigate the impact dynamics of droplets on textiles subjected to various tensile forces. Critical phenomena, such as droplet penetration and capture, are analyzed. We find that the critical impact velocity for droplet penetration increases as the stretching tension in the textile decreases. Furthermore, we present a simple model to predict the critical conditions for droplet penetration and capture that takes into account the surface tension, the droplet size, density and speed, the tensile load and the textile contact angle. We validate the model through experiments, demonstrating a strong agreement. These insights hold significant implications for the design of protective garments, such as face-masks and water-repellent clothing.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Droplet impact dynamics on stretched textiles |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-025-89855-8 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-89855-8 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, Fluid dynamics |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Mechanical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205360 |
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