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The macroscopic contact angle of water on ice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2025

Wladimir Sarlin Open the ORCID record for Wladimir Sarlin [Opens in a new window] ,
Daniel Vito Papa Open the ORCID record for Daniel Vito Papa [Opens in a new window] ,
Rodolphe Grivet Open the ORCID record for Rodolphe Grivet [Opens in a new window] ,
Alexander Rosenbaum ,
Axel Huerre Open the ORCID record for Axel Huerre [Opens in a new window] ,
Thomas Séon Open the ORCID record for Thomas Séon [Opens in a new window]  and
Christophe Josserand Open the ORCID record for Christophe Josserand [Opens in a new window]
Wladimir Sarlin*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’Hydrodynamique, CNRS, École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau 91120, France
Daniel Vito Papa
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’Hydrodynamique, CNRS, École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau 91120, France
Rodolphe Grivet
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’Hydrodynamique, CNRS, École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau 91120, France
Alexander Rosenbaum
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’Hydrodynamique, CNRS, École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau 91120, France
Axel Huerre
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes (MSC), CNRS, UMR 7057, Université Paris Cité, Paris 75013, France
Thomas Séon
Affiliation:
Institut Franco-Argentin de Dynamique des Fluides pour l’Environnement (IFADyFE), CNRS (IRL 2027), Universidad de Buenos Aires, CONICET, Buenos Aires 1428, Argentina
Christophe Josserand
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’Hydrodynamique, CNRS, École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau 91120, France
*
Corresponding author: Wladimir Sarlin, wladimirsarlin@outlook.com
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Abstract

Wettability quantifies the affinity of a liquid over a substrate and determines whether the surface is repellent or not. When both the liquid and the solid phases are made of the same chemical substance and are at thermal equilibrium, complete wetting is expected in principle, as observed, for instance, with drops of molten metals spreading on their solid counterparts. However, this is not the case for water on ice. Although there is a growing consensus on the partial wetting of water on ice and several estimates available for the value of the associated macroscopic contact angle, the question of whether these values correspond to the contact angle at mechanical and thermal equilibrium is still open. In the present paper, we address this issue experimentally and demonstrate the existence of such a macroscopic contact angle of water on ice, from measurements and theoretical arguments. Indeed, when depositing water droplets on smooth polycrystalline ice layers with accurately controlled surface temperatures, we observe that spreading is unaffected by thermal effects and phase change close enough to the melting point (namely, for undercoolings below 1 K) so that conditions of thermal equilibrium are closely approached. Whereas the short time motion of the contact line is driven by an inertial-capillary balance, the evolution towards mechanical equilibrium is described by a viscous-capillary dynamics and is therefore capillary – and not thermally – related. Moreover, we show that the resulting contact angle remains constant for undercoolings below 1 K. In this way, we show the existence of a non-zero macroscopic contact angle of water on ice under conditions of mechanical and thermal equilibrium, which is very close to $12^\circ$. We anticipate this key finding will significantly improve the understanding of capillary flows in the presence of phase change, which is of special interest in the realm of ice morphogenesis and glaciology, and will also be beneficial with the aim of developing numerical methods for resolving triple-line dynamics.

JFM classification

Drops and Bubbles: Drops Phase change: Solidification/melting

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Type
JFM Papers
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Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 1019 , 25 September 2025 , A31
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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