Width distribution of contact lines on a disordered substrate

Sebastien Moulinet (1) , Alberto Rosso (2) , Werner Krauth (1) , Etienne Rolley (1)

1 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique Statistique de l'ENS
2 DPMC - Département de Physique de la Matière Condensée

We have studied the roughness of a contact line of a liquid meniscus on a disordered substrate by measuring its width distribution. The comparison between the measured width distribution and the width distribution calculated in previous works, extended here to the case of open boundary conditions, confirms that the Joanny-de Gennes model is not sufficient to describe the dynamics of contact lines at the depinning threshold. This conclusion is in agreement with recent measurements which determine the roughness exponent by extrapolation to large system sizes.

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]

Sebastien Moulinet, Alberto Rosso, Werner Krauth, Etienne Rolley. Width distribution of contact lines on a disordered substrate. Physical Review E : Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 2004, 69, pp.035103(R). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevE.69.035103⟩. ⟨hal-00115844⟩