Dynamic modeling of contact-line deformation: Comparison with experiment

The quasistatic contact-line dissipation model is applied to the dynamics of relaxation of periodically perturbed contact lines in the Wilhelmy plate geometry where a solid plate is withdrawn vertically at constant velocity from a bath of liquid. The resulting motion of the three-dimensional liquid meniscus is solved rigorously by numerical simulation. A detailed comparison is performed with the recent experimental results of Delon et al. [J. Fluid Mech. 604, 55 (2008)] and with their hydrodynamic approach. The described approach exhibits a better agreement with the experiments than the mentioned hydrodynamic approach. The influence of nonlinearity on the contact-line relaxation dynamics is analyzed. The deviation from the behavior predicted within the contact-line elasticity model is discussed.