Short time dynamics of viscous drop spreading

Liquid drops start spreading directly after coming into contact with a solid substrate. Although this phenomenon involves a three-phase contact line, the spreading motion can be very fast. We experimentally study the initial spreading dynamics, characterized by the radius of the wetted area, for vis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics of fluids (1994) 2013-01, Vol.25 (1)
Main Authors: Eddi, A, Winkels, K G, Snoeijer, J H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coalescing
Contact
Dynamic tests
Dynamics
Fluid dynamics
High speed
Liquids
Spreading
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Summary:Liquid drops start spreading directly after coming into contact with a solid substrate. Although this phenomenon involves a three-phase contact line, the spreading motion can be very fast. We experimentally study the initial spreading dynamics, characterized by the radius of the wetted area, for viscous drops. Using high-speed imaging with synchronized bottom and side views gives access to 6 decades of time resolution. We show that short time spreading does not exhibit a pure power-law growth. Instead, we find a spreading velocity that decreases logarithmically in time, with a dynamics identical to that of coalescing viscous drops. Remarkably, the contact line dissipation and wetting effects turn out to be unimportant during the initial stages of drop spreading.
ISSN:1070-6631
1089-7666
DOI:10.1063/1.4788693