Dynamics and stability of sessile drops with contact points

Abstract

In an effort to study the stability of contact lines in fluids, we consider the dynamics of a drop of incompressible viscous Stokes fluid evolving above a one-dimensional flat surface under the influence of gravity. This is a free boundary problem: the interface between the fluid on the surface and the air above (modeled by a trivial fluid) is free to move and experiences capillary forces. The three-phase interface where the fluid, air, and solid vessel wall meet is known as a contact point, and the angle formed between the free interface and the flat surface is called the contact angle. We consider a model of this problem that allows for fully dynamic contact points and angles. We develop a scheme of a priori estimates for the model, which then allow us to show that for initial data sufficiently close to equilibrium, the model admits global solutions that decay to a shifted equilibrium exponentially fast.