Gravity-driven Thin Film Research Articles

Gravity-driven fingering simulations for a thin liquid film flowing down the outside of a vertical cylinder

A numerical study is presented to examine the fingering instability of a gravity-driven thin liquid film flowing down the outer wall of a vertical cylinder. The lubrication approximation is employed to derive an evolution equation for the height of the film, which is dependent on a single parameter, the dimensionless cylinder radius. This equation is identified as a special case of that which describes thin film flow down an inclined plane. Fully three-dimensional simulations of the film depict a fingering pattern at the advancing contact line. We find the number of fingers observed in our simulations to be in excellent agreement with experimental observations and a linear stability analysis reported recently by Smolka and SeGall [Phys. Fluids 23, 092103 (2011)]. As the radius of the cylinder decreases, the modes of perturbation have an increased growth rate, thus increasing cylinder curvature partially acts to encourage the contact line instability. In direct competition with this behavior, a decrease in cylinder radius means that fewer fingers are able to form around the circumference of the cylinder. Indeed, for a sufficiently small radius, a transition is observed, at which point the contact line is stable to transverse perturbations of all wave numbers. In this regime, free surface instabilities lead to the development of wave patterns in the axial direction, and the flow features become perfectly analogous to the two-dimensional flow of a thin film down an inverted plane as studied by Lin and Kondic [Phys. Fluids 22, 052105 (2010)]. Finally, we simulate the flow of a single drop down the outside of the cylinder. Our results show that for drops with low volume, the cylinder curvature has the effect of increasing drop speed and hence promoting the phenomenon of pearling. In contrast, drops with much larger volume evolve to form single long rivulets with a similar shape to a finger formed in the aforementioned simulations.

Thin liquid film flow over substrates with two topographical features

A multicomponent lattice Boltzmann scheme is used to investigate the surface coating of substrates with two topographical features by a gravity-driven thin liquid film. The considered topographies are U- and V-shaped grooves and mounds. For the case of substrates with two grooves, our results indicate that for each of the grooves there is a critical width such that if the groove width is larger than the critical width, the groove can be coated successfully. The critical width of each groove depends on the capillary number, the contact angle, the geometry, and the depth of that groove. The second groove critical width depends on, in addition, the geometry and the depth of the first groove; for two grooves with the same geometries and depths, it is at least equal to that of the first groove. If the second groove width lies between the critical widths, the second groove still can be coated successfully on the condition that the distance between the grooves is considered larger than a critical distance. For considered contact angles and capillary numbers our results indicate that the critical distance is a convex function of the capillary number and the contact angle. Our study also reveals similar results for the case of substrates with a mound and a groove.

Effects of Inertia and Thermocapillarity in Non-isothermal Film Flow

The effect of moving heat source on the flow structure in gravity-driven thin liquid film is studied. The 2-D steady-state conjugated hydrodynamic and thermal problem is solved in long-wave approximation. The flow structures in different regimes are compared: from the regime of flow along vertical substrate with resting heat source to the regime with moving heat source and horizontal liquid layer.

Gravity-driven thin film flow: The influence of topography and surface tension gradient on rivulet formation

The evolution of an advancing fluid front formed by a gravity-driven thin film flowing down a planar substrate is considered, with particular reference to the presence of Marangoni stresses and/or surface topography. The system is modelled using lubrication theory and solved via an efficient, adaptive multigrid method that incorporates automatic, error-controlled grid refinement/derefinement and time stepping. The detailed three dimensional numerical results obtained reveal that, for the problems investigated, while both of the above features affect the merger of rivulets by either delaying or promoting the same, topography influences the direction of growth.

The effect of surface tension on the gravity-driven thin film flow of Newtonian and power-law fluids

Gravity-driven thin film flow is of importance in many fields, as well as for the design of polymeric drug delivery vehicles, such as anti-HIV topical microbicides. There have been many prior works on gravity-driven thin films. However, the incorporation of surface tension effect has not been well studied for non-Newtonian fluids. After surface tension effect was incorporated into our 2D (i.e. 1D spreading) power-law model, we found that surface tension effect not only impacted the spreading speed of the microbicide gel, but also had an influence on the shape of the 2D spreading profile. We observed a capillary ridge at the front of the fluid bolus. Previous literature shows that the emergence of a capillary ridge is strongly related to the contact line fingering instability. Fingering instabilities during epithelial coating may change the microbicide gel distribution and therefore impact how well it can protect the epithelium. In this study, we focused on the capillary ridge in 2D flow and performed a series of simulations and showed how the capillary ridge height varies with other parameters, such as surface tension coefficient, inclination angle, initial thickness, and power-law parameters. As shown in our results, we found that capillary ridge height increased with higher surface tension, steeper inclination angle, bigger initial thickness, and more Newtonian fluids. This study provides the initial insights of how to optimize the flow and prevent the appearance of a capillary ridge and fingering instability.

Electrified thin film flow at finite Reynolds number on planar substrates featuring topography

The flow of a gravity-driven thin liquid film over a substrate containing topography, in the presence of a normal electric field, is investigated. The liquid is assumed to be a perfect conductor and the air above it a perfect dielectric. Of particular interest is the interplay between inertia, for finite values of the Reynolds number, Re, and electric field strength, expressed in terms of the Weber number, We, on the resultant free-surface disturbance away from planarity. The hydrodynamics of the film are modelled via a depth-averaged form of the Navier–Stokes equations which is coupled to a Fourier series separable solution of Laplace’s equation for the electric potential: detailed steady-state solutions of the coupled equation set are obtained numerically.The case of two-dimensional flow over different forms of discrete and periodically varying spanwise topography is explored. In the case of the familiar free-surface capillary peaks and depressions that arise for steep topography, and become more pronounced with increasing Re, greater electric field strength affects them differently. In particular, it is found that for topography heights commensurate with the long-wave approximation: (i) the capillary ridge associated with a step-down topography at first increases before decreasing, both monotonically, with increasing We and (ii) the free-surface hump which arises at a step-up topography continues to increase monotonically with increasing We, the increase achieved being smaller the larger the value of Re.A series of results for the more practically relevant problem of three-dimensional film flow over substrate containing a localised square trench topography is provided. These exhibit behaviour and features consistent with those observed for two-dimensional flow, in that as We is increased the primary free-surface capillary ridges and depressions are at first enhanced, with a corresponding narrowing, before becoming suppressed. In addition, it is found that, while the well-known horse-shoe shaped disturbance characteristic of such flows continues to persist with increasing Re in the absence of an electric field, when the latter is present and We increased in value the associated comet tail disappears as does the related downstream surge. The phenomenon is explained with reference to the competition between the corresponding capillary pressure and Maxwell stress distributions.

Side wall effects on the instability of thin gravity-driven films—From long-wave to short-wave instability

We study the effects of side walls on the primary instability of a gravity-driven thin liquid film flowing down a flat channel. The influences of different capillary boundary layer effects at the side walls on the instability of the free surface are resolved experimentally, by varying the crosswise side wall distance of the measurement positions between 5 mm and the channel center-line. The height of the capillary elevation and, thus, the resulting pretensioning of the free surface and the magnitude of a possible velocity overshoot have been adjusted by changing the contact angle between the liquid and the side wall. The influence of the contact angle on the stability of the flow, and especially its range, is remarkable. The difference of the neutral stability curves for the two investigated contact angles is up to 25% and remains significant even up to a side wall distance of 17 times the capillary length. Irrespective of the contact angle, the type of the free surface instability undergoes a transition from long-wave in the center of the channel to short-wave, as is well known for boundary layer flows, when the side wall distance is reduced. Furthermore, we have found that the presence of a velocity overshoot tends to destabilize the free surface.

Side wall effects in thin gravity-driven film flow – steady and draining flow

The increasing demand for thinner films in scientific and technological applications requires a better knowledge of the effect of side walls on such flows, especially as far as the formation of a capillary boundary layer is concerned. In this paper gravity-driven thin film flow in an open channel is investigated, highlighting the competing effects of the no-slip condition and velocity overshoot due to capillary elevation at the bounding side walls. Their influence on the flow rate, the velocity field, the Reynolds number, and the free surface shape is studied for two flow types: (i) the case with vanishingly small capillary elevation at the side walls compared to the film thickness at the center of the channel; (ii) the situation when capillary elevation at the side walls dominates over the film thickness at the center of the channel. For both, large deviations from the two-dimensional reference system occur. The theoretical predictions are compared to experimental observations, for the case of side walls with different wetting properties defined in terms of the static contact angle there.

Inertial two- and three-dimensional thin film flow over topography

The effect of inertia on gravity-driven thin film free-surface flow over substrates containing topography is considered. Flow is modelled using a depth-averaged form of the governing Navier–Stokes equations and the discrete analogue of the coupled equation set solved accurately using an efficient full approximation storage (FAS) and full multigrid (FMG) technique. The free-surface disturbance induced by topographic features is illustrated by considering examples of gravity-driven flow over and around peak, trench and occlusion topography. Results are presented which demonstrate how increasing Reynolds number can significantly enhance the magnitude of free-surface disturbances, a feature which may have important consequences for the wide range of coating process that aim to maximise free-surface planarity.

Developing Laminar Gravity-Driven Thin Liquid Film Flow Down an Inclined Plane

Three-dimensional (3D)—steady-developing-laminar-isothermal—and gravity-driven thin liquid film flow adjacent to an inclined plane is examined and the effects of film flow rate, surface tension, and surface inclination angle on the film thickness and film width are presented. The film flow was numerically simulated using the volume of fluid model and experimental verification was conducted by measuring film thickness and width using a laser focus displacement instrument. The steady film flow that is considered in this study does not have a leading contact line, however, it has two steady side contact lines with the substrate surface at the outer edge of its width. Results reveal that the film width decreases and the average film thickness increases as the film flows down the inclined plane. The film thickness and width decrease but its streamwise velocity increases as surface inclination angle (as measured from the horizontal plane) increases. A higher film flow rate is associated with a higher film thickness, a higher film width, and a higher average film velocity. Films with higher surface tension are associated with a smaller width and a higher average thickness. A ripple develops near the side contact line, i.e., the spanwise distribution of the film thickness exhibits peaks at the outer edges of the film width and the height of this ripple increases as the surface tension or the film flow rate increases. The width of the film decreases at a faster rate along the streamwise direction if liquid film has higher surface tension. Measurements of the film thickness and the film width compare favorably with the numerically simulated results.

Shock Solutions for Particle-Laden Thin Films

We derive a lubrication model describing gravity-driven thin film flow of a suspension of heavy particles in viscous fluid. The main features of this continuum model are an effective mixture viscosity and a particle settling velocity, both depending on particle concentration. The resulting equations form a $2 \times 2$ system of conservation laws in the film thickness $h(x,t)$ and in $\phi h$, where $\phi(x,t)$ is the particle volume fraction. We study flows in one dimension under the constant flux boundary condition, which corresponds to the classical Riemann problem, and we find the system can have either double-shock or singular shock solutions. We present the details of both solutions and examine the effects of the particle settling model and of the microscopic length scale b at the contact line.

Flow of evaporating, gravity-driven thin liquid films over topography

The effect of topography on the free surface and solvent concentration profiles of an evaporating thin film of liquid flowing down an inclined plane is considered. The liquid is assumed to be composed of a resin dissolved in a volatile solvent with the associated solvent concentration equation derived on the basis of the well-mixed approximation. The dynamics of the film is formulated as a lubrication approximation and the effect of a composition-dependent viscosity is included in the model. The resulting time-dependent, nonlinear, coupled set of governing equations is solved using a full approximation storage multigrid method. The approach is first validated against a closed-form analytical solution for the case of a gravity-driven, evaporating thin film flowing down a flat substrate. Analysis of the results for a range of topography shapes reveal that although a full-width, spanwise topography such as a step-up or a step-down does not affect the composition of the film, the same is no longer true for the case of localized topography, such as a peak or a trough, for which clear nonuniformities of the solvent concentration profile can be observed in the wake of the topography.

Growing surfactant waves in thin liquid films driven by gravity

The dynamics of a gravity-driven thin film flow with insoluble surfactant are described in the lubrication approximation by a coupled system of nonlinear PDEs. When the total quantity of surfactant is fixed, a traveling wave solution exists. For the case of constant flux of surfactant from an upstream reservoir, global traveling waves no longer exist as the surfactant accumulates at the leading edge of the thin film profile. The dynamics can be described using matched asymptotic expansions for t →∞ . The solution is constructed from quasistatically evolving traveling waves. The rate of growth of the surfactant profile is shown to be O( √ t) and is supported by numerical simulations.

Viscous flow of a volatile liquid on an inclined heated surface.

We investigate the effects of evaporation on a gravity-driven flow of a viscous liquid on a heated solid surface. Vapor molecules are adsorbed on the dry areas of the solid and form a microscopic adsorbed film. The thickness of this film is calculated from the formulas for disjoining pressure and the principles of equilibrium thermodynamics. A lubrication-type approach is used to derive an evolution equation capable of describing both the macroscopic shape of the vapor-liquid interface and the adsorbed film on the vapor-solid interface. Under the conditions of negligible evaporation, the numerical solution of the evolution equation predicts translational motion and formation of capillary ridge, in agreement with previous investigations. Moderate evaporation is shown to slow down the flow and decrease the height of the capillary ridge, which implies a stabilizing effect of evaporation on the well-known instability observed in gravity-driven thin film flows. We also study the combined effects of evaporation and thermocapillary stresses and show that the latter act to reduce the velocity of the downward motion, but increase the height of the capillary ridge. Apparent contact angles are found from the solution and shown to increase with evaporation and contact line speed. For strong evaporation, steady state solutions are found such that evaporation balances the downward motion of the interface under the action of gravity.