Depinning and dynamics of imbibition fronts in paper under increasing ambient humidity

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2013 Jan;87(1):014102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.87.014102. Epub 2013 Jan 15.

Abstract

We study the effects of ambient air humidity on the dynamics of imbibition in a paper. We observed that a quick increase of ambient air humidity leads to depinning and non-Washburn motion of wetting fronts. Specifically, we found that after depinning the wetting front moves with decreasing velocity v[proportionality](h(p)/h(D))(γ), where h(D) is the front elevation with respect to its pinned position at lower humidity h(p), while γ=/~1/3. The spatiotemporal maps of depinned front activity are established. The front motion is controlled by the dynamics of local avalanches directed at 30° to the balk flow direction. Although the roughness of the pinned wetting front is self-affine and the avalanche size distribution displays a power-law asymptotic, the roughness of the moving front becomes multiaffine a few minutes after depinning.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Humidity
  • Models, Statistical*
  • Paper*
  • Water / chemistry*
  • Wettability*

Substances

  • Water