Droplet patterning from interfacial flows on fiber networks

On a cool morning, you will find spider webs filled with dew drops. These droplets are incredibly consistent in size and are found throughout the web. Beyond the formation of droplets on the spider silk itself, the entire large structure of droplets inspires this work to create new methods of manufacturing textile-like mechanical meta-materials. Our experimental platform explores the Rayleigh-Plateau instability of a curing elastomer on networks of elastic fibers. We rationalize how the time-scales of a curing fluid interact with the time-scales of the instability as a way to freeze droplets into beads with select size and spacing. In addition, we study how the geometry and topology of the network as well as its elasticity can inform the drop template on the fibers.