Cassie–Baxter to Wenzel state wetting transition: a 2D numerical simulation

Abstract

We simulate in two dimensions the wetting behavior of a liquid droplet placed on a solid surface structured by a regular distribution of pillars. For this purpose, as in a recent study, we used the Potts Hamiltonian formalism. We focused our investigations on the transition between the wetting regimes characteristic of the super-repellent property of our surfaces. We determined several physical variables influencing such a property and we also built the wetting phase diagrams of which two different states and a transition zone were identified. The transition happens between a Cassie–Baxter state (CB) and the Wenzel state. We also show that the wetting transition is affected by fluctuations and liquid compressibility.