David Fairhurst – A Multiple Droplet Sandwich

I will primarily talk about our very recent experimental work on the evaporation of arrays of droplets. We have developed a ‘pattern distortion’ technique to allow simultaneous monitoring of the heights of many sessile droplets. We use this method to extract time-dependent evaporation rates from droplets in dense arrays, finding excellent agreement between our data and recent theories. The main body of my talk will be sandwiched between two other topics: the importance of gravity-driven convective flows within evaporating droplets; and how to achieve stable levitation using a magnetic stirrer.