On contact-line dynamics with mass transfer

Journal article

We investigate the effect of mass transfer on the evolution of a thin, two-dimensional, partially wetting drop. While the effects of viscous dissipation, capillarity, slip and uniform mass transfer are taken into account, other effects, such as gravity, surface tension gradients, vapour transport and heat transport, are neglected in favour of mathematical tractability. Our focus is on a matched-asymptotic analysis in the small-slip limit, which reveals that the leading-order outer formulation and contact-line law depend delicately on both the sign and the size of the mass transfer flux. This leads, in particular, to novel generalisations of Tanner’s law. We analyse the resulting evolution of the drop on the timescale of mass transfer and validate the leading-order predictions by comparison with preliminary numerical simulations. Finally, we outline the generalisation of the leading-order formulations to prescribed non-uniform rates of mass transfer and to three dimensions.

Authors: Oliver, JM; Whiteley, JP; Saxton, M; Vella, D; Zubkov, V

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: European Journal of Applied Mathematics
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 671-719
• Publication date: 2015-08-10
• Acceptance date: 2015-06-12
• DOI: 10.1017/S0956792515000364
• EISSN: 1469-4425
• ISSN: 0956-7925
• Language: English
• Keywords: surface-tension driven flows; evaporation; thin films; matched asymptotic expansions; condensation