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The Filament Extension Atomizer™ (FEA) is a unique technology designed for highly viscous or strain-hardening fluids that are otherwise difficult to atomize. The fluid is processed as a thin film between the contact points of two counter-rotating rollers of different materials. As the film is processed beyond the contact point, it is subject to an extensional flow that creates numerous thin filaments. As the filaments are stretched, they thin, and eventually, surface tension causes them to break into tightly dispersed droplets. Certain fluids, particularly those of low to moderate viscosity and high surface tension, can present challenges to atomize in FEA. Due to the tendency of these fluids to coalesce, their wetting on the rollers has been critical in optimizing film formation, though the impact of surface wetting on filament formation and breakup is not well understood. Accordingly, we studied the role of end-plate wetting for a high surface tension, aqueous, strain-hardening polymer solution on filament formation, thinning, and breakup, and fluid transfer to the end-plates, using a modified Capillary Breakup Extensional Rheometer (CABER). We found that filament formation and evolution were dramatically affected by both the wetting and wetting imbalances between the two end-plates, leading to different behavior across different end-plate combinations. The highly imbalanced wetting scenarios (i.e., combining a highly wetting and a non-wetting end-plate) gave rise to the most extreme deviations from classic behavior in conventional CABER experiments, such as long persisting filaments.

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