  We present a fluid-mechanical model of the coalescence of a number of elastic
objects due to surface tension. We consider an array of spring-block elements
separated by thin liquid films, whose dynamics are modelled using lubrication
theory. With this simplified model of elastocapillary coalescence, we present
the results of numerical simulations for a large number of elements,
$N=O(10^4)$. A linear stability analysis shows that pairwise coalescence is
always the most unstable mode of deformation. However, the numerical
simulations show that the cluster sizes actually produced by coalescence from a
small white-noise perturbation have a distribution that depends on the relative
strength of surface tension and elasticity, as measured by an elastocapillary
number $K$. Both the maximum cluster size and the mean cluster size scale like
$K^{-1/2}$ for small $K$. An analytical solution for the response of the system
to a localized perturbation shows that such perturbations generate propagating
disturbance fronts, which leave behind `frozen-in' clusters of a predictable
size that also depends on $K$. A good quantitative comparison between the
cluster-size statistics from noisy perturbations and this `frozen-in' cluster
size suggests that propagating fronts may play a crucial role in the dynamics
of coalescence.
