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Rolling and Sliding Modes of Nanodroplet Spreading: Molecular Simulations and a Continuum Approach
Sreehari Perumanath1, Mykyta V Chubynsky1,2, Rohit Pillai3
1Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Molecular simulations discover a new mode of dynamic wetting that manifests itself in the very earliest stages of spreading, after a droplet contacts a solid. The observed mode is a "rolling" type of motion, characterized by a contact angle lower than the classically assumed value of 180°, and precedes the conventional "sliding" mode of spreading. This motivates the development of a novel continuum framework that captures all modes of motion, allows the dominant physical mechanisms to be understood, and permits the study of larger droplets.

