Home▸Materials Science▸Polymer Surface Energy Lab: Contact Angle & Young's Equation

Polymer Surface Energy Lab: Contact Angle & Young's Equation

Interactive 3D wetting simulator: pick a real polymer (PTFE, PE, nylon, PET, glass), a liquid, and a surface roughness, and watch a physically-shaped droplet form at the contact angle predicted by Young's, Fowkes' and Wenzel's equations.

Materials Science3DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 2D version

Every polymer's surface chemistry sets how liquids sit on it — PTFE's low-energy C–F backbone makes water bead into near-spherical droplets, while glass or a high-energy nylon surface pulls it flat. This simulator lets you choose a real solid (PTFE, PE, PP, PET, nylon, glass, or a custom surface energy), a real liquid, a droplet volume and a surface roughness, then renders the exact equilibrium spherical-cap shape predicted by Young's equation and the Fowkes dispersive approximation, with the Wenzel roughness correction and Young–Dupré work of adhesion tracked live as you drag the sliders.

⚙ Under the hood

Pick a real polymer surface (PTFE, PE, PP, PET, nylon, glass) and a liquid, then watch a physically-shaped droplet settle at the contact angle predicted by Young's equation, the Fowkes dispersive approximation and the Wenzel roughness correction.

polymerssurface energywettingmaterials sciencechemistryPTFE

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install