Fig. 3.

Characterization of the dynamics of the receding three-phase contact line on soft elastic layers. (A) Dependence of the contact angle difference ${\theta }_{eq}-{\theta }_{dyn}$ on the velocity of the receding contact line on two layers of thickness $h_0=15$ and 900 $\mu$m. Dashed lines: predictions based on our model. (A, Inset) Log–log plot of the function $G({\theta }_{dyn})$ as a function of the contact-line velocity for the same systems. Dashed line: power-law fit with an exponent $m=0.62\pm 0.02$. (B) Dependence of ${\theta }_{eq}-{\theta }_{dyn}$ on $h_0$ at constant receding velocity $V=0.1$ mm$\cdot$s⁻¹. Dashed lines: predictions of our model for two values of the solid surface tension ${\gamma }_s$. (C) Test of Eq. 11, relating the dynamic contact angle to the velocity of the contact line and the thickness of the sample in the small-thickness regime against experimental data. Dashed line: Eq. 11, with $m=0.62\pm 0.02$ and a slope of 2. The horizontal line is a guide for the eyes.