Abstract
This paper considers a free boundary problem that describes the motion of contact lines of a liquid droplet on a flat surface. The elliptic nature of the equation for droplet shape and the monotonic dependence of contact line velocity on contact angle allows us to introduce a notion of "viscosity" solutions for this problem. Unlike similar free boundary problems, a comparison principle is only available for a modified short-time approximation because of the constraint that conserves volume. We use this modified problem to construct viscosity solutions to the original problem under a weak geometric restriction on the free boundary shape. We also prove uniqueness provided there is an upper bound on front velocity.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 37-60 |
Number of pages | 24 |
Journal | Interfaces and Free Boundaries |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2009 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Surfaces and Interfaces