Abstract
Spontaneous imbibition flows within confined geometries are commonly
encountered in both natural phenomena and industrial applications. A
profound knowledge of the underlying flow dynamics benefits a broad
spectrum of engineering practices. Nonetheless, within this area,
especially concerning complex geometries, there exists a substantial
research gap. This work centers on the cylinder-plane geometry,
employing a combined theoretical and numerical approach to investigate
the process of a wetting film wrapping a cylinder corner. It is found
that the advance of the liquid front generally follows the
Lucas-Washburn kinetics, i.e., $\thalf$ scaling, but it
also depends on the dynamics of the liquid source. Furthermore, we
provide a theoretical estimation of the timescale associated with the
imbibition process. Notably, this timescale is highly dependent on the
wettability condition and the properties of the involved liquid.
Importantly, the practicability of our theoretical framework is well
confirmed by the numerical experiments.