Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

In this talk we will introduce two models for the movement of a small droplet over a substrate: the thin film equation and the quasi static approximation. By tracking the motion of the apparent support of solutions to the thin film equation, we connect these two models. This connection was expected from Tanner's law: the edge velocity of a spreading thin film on a pre-wetted solid is approximately proportional to the cube of the slope at the inflection. This is joint work with Prof. Antoine Mellet.