dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaInstability of a moving contact line
| Authors | Jens Eggers |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0501096 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0501096 |
Abstract
We study a solid plate plunging into or being withdrawn from a liquid bath, to highlight the fundamental difference between the local behavior of an advancing or a receding contact line, respectively. It is assumed that the liquid partially wets the solid, making a finite contact angle in equilibrium. In our hydrodynamic description which neglects the presence of the outer gas atmosphere, an advancing dynamic wetting line persists to arbitrarily high speeds. The receding wetting line, on the other hand, vanishes at a critical speed set by the competition between viscous and surface tension forces. In the advancing case, we apply existing matching techniques to the plunging plate geometry, to significantly improve on existing theories. For the receding contact line, we demonstrate for the first time how the local contact line solution can be matched to the far-field meniscus. In doing so, we confirm our very recent criterion for the instability of the receding contact line. The results of both the advancing and the receding cases are tested against simulations of the full model equations.
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"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:56.880000Z",
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"abstract": "We study a solid plate plunging into or being withdrawn from a liquid bath,\nto highlight the fundamental difference between the local behavior of an\nadvancing or a receding contact line, respectively. It is assumed that the\nliquid partially wets the solid, making a finite contact angle in equilibrium.\nIn our hydrodynamic description which neglects the presence of the outer gas\natmosphere, an advancing dynamic wetting line persists to arbitrarily high\nspeeds. The receding wetting line, on the other hand, vanishes at a critical\nspeed set by the competition between viscous and surface tension forces. In the\nadvancing case, we apply existing matching techniques to the plunging plate\ngeometry, to significantly improve on existing theories. For the receding\ncontact line, we demonstrate for the first time how the local contact line\nsolution can be matched to the far-field meniscus. In doing so, we confirm our\nvery recent criterion for the instability of the receding contact line. The\nresults of both the advancing and the receding cases are tested against\nsimulations of the full model equations.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0501096",
"authors": [
"Jens Eggers"
],
"categories": [
"physics.flu-dyn"
],
"title": "Instability of a moving contact line",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0501096"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "c98dc7b0-41db-4683-afa0-9537c1137a4f",
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"type": "Model",
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