Figure 2.

Schematics of the liquid bridge and definition of parameters used throughout the paper. (a) Schematics of the drying of a liquid bridge: close to the liquid–air interface, air is saturated by water vapour, $p_v/p_v^o=1$. Away from the two substrate plates, air has a constant water vapour saturation $p_v/p_v^o=\phi$. (b) Schematics of a liquid bridge on a hydrophilic substrate having a critical point in r₀. The liquid bridge is described by the radius r(z) and by its contact angle θ. (c) Close-up on the liquid–gas and the definition of angle α with $\cos \alpha =1/\sqrt{1+{\dot{r}}^2}$.