The flow near a moving contact line is primarily governed by three key parameters: viscosity ratio, dynamic contact angle, and inertia. While the behavior of dynamic contact angles has been extensively studied in earlier experimental and theoretical works, quantitative characterization of flow configurations remains limited. The present study reports detailed measurements of flow fields, interface shapes, and interfacial speeds in the low- to moderate-Reynolds-number ($\mathrm{Re}$) regimes using particle image velocimetry and high-resolution image analysis. The investigation is restricted to dynamic contact angles greater than ${90}^{\circ }$. In the low-$\mathrm{Re}$ regime, excellent agreement is observed between measured streamfunction contours and the modified viscous theory of Huh and Scriven [J. Colloid Interface Sci. 35, 85 (1971)] that accounts for a curved interface. Interface shapes from experiments are compared against well-known theoretical models, and the experiments reveal the limitations of these models to capture interface shapes over the entire range of length scales. Theoretical models such as the DRG formulation using a single fitting parameter, accurately predict interface shapes even at finite $\mathrm{Re}$. The interfacial speed away from the contact line compares favorably with theoretical predictions, whereas a pronounced deceleration is observed close to the contact line. Complementary volume-of-fluid–based numerical simulations were performed using identical geometric and material parameters to validate and extend the experimental observations. The simulations successfully reproduce the interface topology, flow structure, and the deceleration of the interfacial velocity near the contact line, providing strong support to the experimental findings. We argue that this rapid reduction in speed, observed both in experiments and simulations, is critical to the resolution of the long-standing moving contact line singularity.

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• Contact line dynamics
• Wetting
• Particle image velocimetry
• Volume of fluid method