Convective mass deposition near a topologically singular transition

Abstract

The leading-edge of a substrate undergoing convective mass deposition is a region of significant local deposition rate compared to the mass deposition at the downstream Leveque concentration boundary layer. The local increase in mass deposition is due to an intrinsic topological transition at the leading edge, a transition that is usually in the chemistry or geometry of the target surface for deposition. We study two leading-edge cases for model convective electrodeposition: a flat and a corner/step transitions between the inert wall and active cathode. We find that mass deposition at the leading-edge is faster than at the boundary layer and is connected to the Pećlet number differently. Its rate is correlated with the transition length and decays downstream to match the deposition rate at the boundary layer.