The dynamics and stability of thin liquid films have fascinated scientists over many decades: the observations of regular wave patterns in film flows down a windowpane or along guttering, the patterning of dewetting droplets, and the fingering of viscous flows down a slope are all examples that are familiar in daily life. Thin film flows occur over a wide range of length scales and are central to numerous areas of engineering, geophysics, and biophysics; these include nanofluidics and microfluidics, coating flows, intensive processing, lava flows, dynamics of continental ice sheets, tear-film rupture, and surfactant replacement therapy. These flows have attracted considerable attention in the literature, which have resulted in many significant developments in experimental, analytical, and numerical research in this area. These include advances in understanding dewetting, thermocapillary- and surfactant-driven films, falling films and films flowing over structured, compliant, and rapidly rotating substrates, and evaporating films as well as those manipulated via use of electric fields to produce nanoscale patterns. These developments are reviewed in this paper and open problems and exciting research avenues in this thriving area of fluid mechanics are also highlighted.

Dynamics and stability of thin liquid films

Rotating disk photocatalytic reactor: development, characterization, and evaluation for the destruction of organic pollutants in water

Measurement of liquid film thickness and the determination of spin-up radius on a rotating disc using an electrical resistance technique

Reaction-precipitation by a spinning disc reactor: Influence of hydrodynamics on nanoparticles production

A fixed volume of liquid is placed on a horizontal disk spinning at a constant angular speed. The liquid forms a film that thins continuously due to centrifugal drainage and evaporation or thins to a finite thickness when surface absorption counterbalances drainage. A nonlinear evolution equation describing the shape of the film interface as a function of space and time is derived, and its stability is examined using linear theory. When there is either no mass transfer or there is evaporation from the film surface, infinitesimal disturbances decay for small wave numbers and are transiently stable for larger wave numbers. When absorption is present at the free surface, the film exhibits three different domains of stability: disturbances of small wave numbers decay, disturbances of intermediate wave numbers grow transiently, and those of larger wave numbers grow exponentially.

The dynamics and stability of thin liquid films during spin coating. I. Films with constant rates of evaporation or absorption

Measurements of the thickness and the stability of thin films of liquid (1–150 μmthick) formed on a rotating horizontal disk are presented and correlated in terms of an asymptotic-expansion solution of the thin-film equations. Water, various alcohols and water with wetting activities were used to cover a range of viscosity (1-2.5cP) and surface tension (20-72 dynes/cm). Smooth flow was found to occur in a region defined by the flow rate, rotational speed and physical properties of the liquid. Outside this region various wave patterns were observed (concentric, spiral and irregular waves). A linear theory of the stability of the film based on an extension of classical stability theories for plane films on inclined planes is given and contrasted with the experimental results. Surface phenomena associated with the use of wetting agents were found to have a strong effect on the stability of the film.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022112072000138

C. Gazley

Papers

The flow and stability of thin liquid films on a rotating disk