An extended Landau–Levich model for the dragging of a thin liquid film with a propagating surface acoustic wave

Abstract

In this paper we revisit the Landau and Levich analysis of a coating flow in the case where the flow in the thin liquid film is supported by a Rayleigh surface acoustic wave (SAW), propagating in the solid substrate. Our theoretical analysis reveals that the geometry of the film evolves under the action of the propagating SAW in a manner that is similar to the evolution of films that are being deposited using the dip coating technique. We show that in a steady state the thin-film evolution equation reduces to a generalized Landau–Levich equation with the dragging velocity, imposed by the SAW, depending on the local film thickness. We demonstrate that the generalized Landau–Levich equation has a branch of stable steady state solutions and a branch of unstable solutions. The branches meet at a saddle-node bifurcation point corresponding to the threshold value of the SAW intensity. Below the threshold value no steady states were found and our numerical computations suggest a gradual thinning of the liquid film from its initial geometry.