Large apparent slip at a moving contact line

Abstract

Two different particle tracking velocimetry techniques are used to measure the fluid velocities close to the substrate in the vicinity of both receding and advancing contact lines. The slip velocity is found to be as much as 60% of the substrate speed near the contact line and persists as far as 10 μm from the liquid-gas interface. The estimated slip length near the contact line singularity requires a measurement of the shear rate close the substrate which depends strongly on the spatial resolution of the measurement technique. The slip length is found to be approximately 5 μm when flood illumination is used and approximately 500 nm when total internal reflection fluorescence illumination is used.