RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SURFACE-TENSION AND ENERGY, INTERFACIAL ENERGY AND LATTICE FRICTION

Any surface, in order to decrease its surface energy, contracts. It is shown for the first time that this contraction is formally equivalent to the introduction of a continuous distribution of surface dislocations. Equilibrium is attained when the increase in strain energy associated with these surface dislocations just balances the corresponding decrease due to the reduction in free surface area. Numerical calculations have been carried out for finite solid and liquid bodies as well as for liquid droplets in contact with solids. These findings suggest that it is possible to reformulate the behaviour of liquids in terms of dislocation theory in a much more general way than has hitherto been done. © 1979 Chapman and Hall Ltd.