The wetting problem of fluids on solid surfaces. Part 2: the contact angle hysteresis

Abstract

In part 1, we proposed a model of dynamics of wetting for slow movements near a contact line formed at the interface of two immiscible fluids and a solid when viscous dissipation remains bounded. The contact line is not a material line and a Young-Dupré equation for the apparent dynamic contact angle taking into account the line celerity was proposed. In this paper we consider a form of the interfacial energy of a solid surface in which many small oscillations are superposed on a slowly varying function. For a capillary tube, a scaling analysis of the microscopic law associated with the Young-Dupré dynamic equation yields a macroscopic equation for the motion of the contact line. The value of the deduced apparent dynamic contact angle yields for the average response of the line motion a phenomenon akin to the stick-slip motion of the contact line on the solid wall. The contact angle hysteresis phenomenon and the modelling of experimentally well-known results expressing the dependence of the apparent dynamic contact angle on the celerity of the line are obtained. Furthermore, a qualitative explanation of the maximum speed of wetting (and dewetting) can be given.