(De)Constructing Complex Contact Lines

Contact lines are the massless boundaries that typically separate a liquid phase from gas and solid. They are created spontaneously whenever liquid enters in contact with a solid surface and therefore is ubiquitous on Earth. However, despite being overwhelmingly present in our daily lives, they present a challenge to be described from the physical and mathematical point of view.

Such a difficulty has consequences in the way we model them (or construct them) for appli- cations as in inkjet printing or in immersed lithography. Due to their dynamic multiscale character, contact lines are also difficult to analyze (or deconstruct) experimentally. Unfortunately, the topic is only marginally covered in scientific conferences, and it is typically difficult to gather enough multidisciplinary expertise to cover all the aspects of this problem.

Therefore, in this workshop we aim to combine theoretical and experimental expertise from the academic side, together with industrial partners dealing with contact line problems to discuss to tackle these challenges in a constructive and collaborative environment.