Controlling the dewetting morphologies of thin liquid films by switchable substrates

Switchable and adaptive substrates emerged as valuable tools for the control of wetting and actuation
of droplet motion. Here we report a computational study of the dynamics of an unstable thin liquid
film deposited on a switchable substrate, modelled with a space and time varying contact angle.
With a static pattern, all the fluid is drained into droplets located around contact angle minima,
whereas for a sufficiently large rate of wettability variation a state consisting of metastable rivulets
is observed. A criterion discriminating whether rivulets can be observed or not is identified in terms
of a single dimensionless parameter. Finally, we show and explain theoretically how the film rupture
times, droplet shape and rivulet life time depend on the pattern wavelength and speed.