Contact Transfer of Liquids Between Impermeable Rigid Surfaces
Fluids and Materials Seminar
8th October 2026, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Fry Building, G.07
Mass transfer due to contact (fomite transfer) is a key part to exposure assessments that seek to estimate the dose received from interacting with a contaminated environment; these underpin hazard management in biological and chemical contexts. It is also of interest for printing, additive manufacturing and similar processes.
We present a joint theoretical and experimental investigation into the contact transfer of liquids between impermeable, rigid parallel surfaces that have been brought into contact and then retracted from each other at constant speed, exploring the interplay between inertia, surface tension, gravity and interfacial contact angles. Water droplets are placed onto a smooth surface, which is then brought into close contact with a second smooth surface. After separation, both surfaces are extracted and the transfer ratio (the fractional volume of liquid transferred from the lower to the upper surface) is determined.
We explore how the transfer ratio depends on the relative strength of gravitational forces compared to surface tension (the Bond number) for both small and large viscous forces (small and order one Capillary number), comparing experimental data with mathematical modelling.
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