Imbibition of micropatterned surfaces can have broad technological and fundamental implications for areas ranging from biomedical devices and fuel transport to writing with ink. Despite rapidly growing interests aimed at various applications, a fundamental physical understanding of the imbibition dynamics is still in its infancy. Recently, two simple scaling regimes for the dynamics have been established for a textured surface decorated with long pillars whose top and bottom edges are sharp. Here, we study the imbibition dynamics of textured surfaces decorated by short pillars with rounded edges, to find a different scaling regime. Interestingly, this regime originates not from the balance of two effects but from the hybrid balance of three effects. Furthermore, this scaling law can be universal or independent of the details of the texture geometry. We envision that this potentially universal scaling regime might be ubiquitous and will be useful in the handling and transportation of a small amount of liquid.

• Received 8 July 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.86.020601