Steady viscous flow near a stationary contact line

Abstract

The paper presents the asymptotic solution, near a stationary contact line at a plane boundary, for steady viscous incompressible flow of two immiscible liquids. The eigenvalues which determine this Stokes flow are determined by the contact angle α of the more viscous liquid and the ratio μ of the two viscosities. The dominant eigenvalues are found for all values of α and μ. As μ → 0 the results agree with those of Moffatt's (1964) one-phase theory for the case μ = 0 only when α > 81°. For α < 81° the two sets of results are qualitatively different. In particular, the eddy structure corresponding to complex eigenvalues occurs only in the α-range (34°, 81°). As μ increases from 0 to 1, this range steadily decreases to zero, which is located at 60°. The transport of energy across the liquid interface is almost always from the obtuse-angled sector to the acute-angled sector, irrespective of α, μ, and the location of the global power supply.