Hydrodynamic assist and the dynamic contact angle in the coalescence of liquid drops

^** Email: decentsp{at}for.mat.bham.ac.uk The coalescence of two viscous liquid drops in an inviscid gasor in a vacuum is studied using the interface formation model.In the very early stages of coalescence during the formationof the ‘liquid-bridge’ connecting the two drops,this model predicts a moving contact line and a dynamic contactangle. This paper examines the dynamic evolution of this contactangle, and for small Reynolds number and small Capillary number,relevant particularly in micro-fluidics, a non-linear differentialequation is derived for the contact angle and solved computationally.It is found that the contact angle evolution can only be evaluatedby determining information about the flow away from the contactline. This is a manifestation of so-called hydrodynamic assist,studied experimentally in the context of curtain coating byBlake et al. (1999 Experimental evidence of non-local hydrodynamicinfluence on the dynamic contact angle. Phys. Fluids, 11, 1995–2007).For small Capillary number and small Reynolds number, the free-surfaceevolution is determined for the coalescence of two cylindersof equal radius. Finally, some comments are made on experimentsin coalescence, as well as on issues arising in a computationalsolution of the full model described here.