Transport of free surface liquid films and drops by external ratchets and self-ratcheting mechanisms

Abstract

We discuss the usage of ratchet mechanisms to transport a continuous phase in several micro-fluidic settings. In particular, we study the transport of a dielectric liquid in a heterogeneous ratchet capacitor that is periodically switched on and off. The second system consists of drops on a solid substrate that are transported by different types of harmonic substrate vibrations. We argue that the latter can be seen as a self-ratcheting process and discuss analogies between the employed class of thin film equations and Fokker-Planck equations for transport of discrete objects in a 'particle ratchet'.