Characteristic Interfacial Structure behind a Rapidly Moving Contact Line

Mengfei He and Sidney R. Nagel
Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 018001 – Published 10 January 2019
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Abstract

In forced wetting, a rapidly moving surface drags with it a thin layer of trailing fluid as it is plunged into a second fluid bath. Using high-speed interferometry, we find characteristic structure in the thickness of this layer with multiple thin flat triangular structures separated by much thicker regions. These features, depending on liquid viscosity and penetration velocity, are robust and occur in both wetting and dewetting geometries. Their presence clearly shows the importance of motion in the transverse direction. We present a model using the assumption that the velocity profile is robust to thickness fluctuations that gives a good estimate of the gap thickness in the thin regions.

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  • Received 31 July 2018
  • Revised 4 October 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.018001

© 2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsFluid Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Mengfei He and Sidney R. Nagel

  • Department of Physics, The James Franck and Enrico Fermi Institutes, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

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Issue

Vol. 122, Iss. 1 — 11 January 2019

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