Langmuir, Vol.17, No.17, 5265-5270, 2001
Kinetic slip condition, van der Waals forces, and dynamic contact angle
The profiles of a spreading wetting film are computed taking into account intermolecular forces and introducing a kinetic slip condition at a molecular cutoff distance. This eliminates the stress singularity, so that both "true" and "visible" contact angles are defined unequivocally. The true contact angle at the cutoff distance depends on the slip length as well as on the edge propagation speed but not on gravity or asymptotic inclination angle. These macroscopic factors influence, however, the visible contact angle observed in the interval where the actual film profile departs from the intermediate asymptotic curve.