Elasticity of a contact-line and avalanche-size distribution at depinning

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments, we extend the Joanny-deGennes calculation of the elasticity of a contact line to an arbitrary contact angle and an arbitrary plate inclination in presence of gravity. This requires a diagonalization of the elastic modes around the non-linear equilibrium profile, which is carried out exactly. We then make detailed predictions for the avalanche-size distribution at quasi-static depinning: we study how the universal (i.e. short-scale independent) rescaled size distribution and the ratio of moments of local to global avalanches depend on the precise form of the elastic kernel.