Wetting: Fundamentals and Applications
S. K. Wilson (Department of Mathematics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow)
Wettability is a fundamental phenomenon that plays a crucial role in a huge variety of practical situations ranging from technological applications such as printing, heat-transfer devices and various coating processes, to a variety of biological and geophysical situations. For example, understanding wetting is key to the successful use of many detergents, emulsifiers, wetting agents, textile-processing chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and cosmetics. Other applications in which wetting plays an important role are found in the semi-conductor industry (in which cleaning and drying semi-conductor wafers is a key issue), the oil industry (in which wetting plays an important role in the recovery of oil), and heat transfer (in which the presence of fluid drops and/or films can have a dramatic effect on overall heat-transfer rates). This mini-symposium will contain a "state-of-the-art" report on some of the very latest work on four rather different aspects of wetting.