ABSTRACT
During spreading of a liquid drop on a solid surface, there is an initial stage where several factors can be important, then a stage where gravity and fluid viscosity are the chief factors promoting and resisting spreading, and finally a stage where intermolecular forces at the drop’s periphery replace gravity as the main factor causing spreading. Approximate analyses for the last two stages are developed. The results are in excellent agreement with available experimental data on spreading rates. The use of intermolecular forces acting throughout a finite region near the drop’s edge is superior to the use of a line force acting at the edge itself in predicting experimental spreading rates for the last stage.
