TEARS-OF-WINE AND RELATED PHENOMENA

The tears-of-wine phenomenon has been generalized here to account for movement of thin films containing contact lines and driven by surface tension gradients. The fluid mechanical problem has been solved under lubrication theory approximation and a rough comparison with the experiments made. The results obtained here for the nonwetting liquids show that wettability plays an important role and the lack of wetting ability can give rise to receding contact lines even when the gradient of surface tension opposes such a movement.