A continuum method for modeling surface tension

to be done in this area. Face recognition is a problem that scarcely clamoured for attention before the computer age but, having surfaced, has involved a wide range of techniques and has attracted the attention of some fine minds (David Mumford was a Fields Medallist in 1974). This singular application of mathematical modelling to a messy applied problem of obvious utility and importance but with no unique solution is a pretty one to share with students: perhaps, returning to the source of our opening quotation, we may invert Duncan's earlier observation, 'There is an art to find the mind's construction in the face!'.

Linear and nonlinear waves, by G. B. Whitham. Pp.636. £50. 1999. ISBN 0 471 35942 4 (Wiley).

Macroscopic thin liquid films are entities that are important in biophysics, physics, and engineering, as well as in natural settings. They can be composed of common liquids such as water or oil, rheologically complex materials such as polymers solutions or melts, or complex mixtures of phases or components. When the films are subjected to the action of various mechanical, thermal, or structural factors, they display interesting dynamic phenomena such as wave propagation, wave steepening, and development of chaotic responses. Such films can display rupture phenomena creating holes, spreading of fronts, and the development of fingers. In this review a unified mathematical theory is presented that takes advantage of the disparity of the length scales and is based on the asymptotic procedure of reduction of the full set of governing equations and boundary conditions to a simplified, highly nonlinear, evolution equation or to a set of equations. As a result of this long-wave theory, a mathematical system is obtained that does not have the mathematical complexity of the original free-boundary problem but does preserve many of the important features of its physics. The basics of the long-wave theory are explained. If, in addition, the Reynolds number of the flow is not too large, the analogy with Reynolds's theory of lubrication can be drawn. A general nonlinear evolution equation or equations are then derived and various particular cases are considered. Each case contains a discussion of the linear stability properties of the base-state solutions and of the nonlinear spatiotemporal evolution of the interface (and other scalar variables, such as temperature or solute concentration). The cases reducing to a single highly nonlinear evolution equation are first examined. These include: (a) films with constant interfacial shear stress and constant surface tension, (b) films with constant surface tension and gravity only, (c) films with van der Waals (long-range molecular) forces and constant surface tension only, (d) films with thermocapillarity, surface tension, and body force only, (e) films with temperature-dependent physical properties, (f) evaporating/condensing films, (g) films on a thick substrate, (h) films on a horizontal cylinder, and (i) films on a rotating disc. The dynamics of the films with a spatial dependence of the base-state solution are then studied. These include the examples of nonuniform temperature or heat flux at liquid-solid boundaries. Problems which reduce to a set of nonlinear evolution equations are considered next. Those include (a) the dynamics of free liquid films, (b) bounded films with interfacial viscosity, and (c) dynamics of soluble and insoluble surfactants in bounded and free films. The spreading of drops on a solid surface and moving contact lines, including effects of heat and mass transport and van der Waals attractions, are then addressed. Several related topics such as falling films and sheets and Hele-Shaw flows are also briefly discussed. The results discussed give motivation for the development of careful experiments which can be used to test the theories and exhibit new phenomena.

Long-scale evolution of thin liquid films

Theories of convection from maintained and instantaneous sources of buoyancy are developed, using methods which are applicable to stratified body fluids with any variation of density with height; detailed solutions have been presented for the case of a stably stratified fluid with a linear density gradient. The three main assumptions involved are (i) that the profiles of vertical velocity and buoyancy are similar at all heights, (ii) that the rate of entrainment of fluid at any height is proportional to a characteristic velocity at that height, and (iii) that the fluids are incompressible and do not change volume on mixing, and that local variations in density throughout the motion are small compared to some reference density. The governing equations are derived in non-dimensional form from the conditions of conservation of volume, momentum and buoyancy, and a numerical solution is obtained for the case of the maintained source, This leads to a prediction of the final height to which a plume of light fluid will rise in a stably stratified fluid. Estimates of the constant governing the rate of entrainment are made by comparing the theory with some previous results in uniform fluids, and with the results of new experiments carried out in a stratified salt solution. For the case of an instantaneous source of buoyancy there is an exact solution; the entrainment constant is again estimated from laboratory results for a stratified fluid Finally, the analysis is applied to the (compressible) atmosphere, by making the customary substitution of potential temperature for temperature. Predictions are made of the height to which smoke plumes from typical sources of heat should rise in a still, stably stratified atmosphere under various conditions.

Turbulent gravitational convection from maintained and instantaneous sources

Small perturbations of a parallel shear flow U(y) in an inviscid, incompressible fluid of variable density ρ0(y) are considered. It is deduced that dynamic instability of statically stable flows ( is the wave speed.

http://ocean.phys.msu.ru/courses/stathyd/1961%20Miles,%20On%20the%20stability%20of%20heterogeneous%20shear%20flows.pdf

On the stability of heterogeneous shear flows

The stability of a liquid layer flowing down an inclined plane is investigated. A new perturbation method is used to furnish information regarding stability of surface waves for three cases: the case of small wavenumbers, of small Reynolds numbers, and of large wavenumbers. The results for small wavenumbers agree with Benjamin's result obtained by the use of power series expansion, and the results for the two other cases are new. The results for large wavenumbers, zero surface tension, and vertical plate contradict the tentative assertion of Benjamin. The three cases are then re‐examined for shear‐wave stability, and the results compared with those for confined plane Poiseuille flow. The comparison serves to indicate the vestiges of shear waves in the free‐surface flow, and to give a sense of unity in the understanding of the stability of both flows. The case of large wavenumbers also serves as a new example of the dual role of viscosity in stability phenomena.The topological features of the ci curves for...

/pdf/stability-of-liquid-flow-down-an-inclined-plane-2x7y59iz7a.pdf

Stability of Liquid Flow down an Inclined Plane

The principal aim of this paper is to show that the variation of viscosity in a fluid can cause instability. Plane Couette-Poiseuille flow of two superposed layers of fluids of different viscosities between two horizontal plates is considered, and it is found that both plane Poiseuille flow and plane Couette flow can be unstable, however small the Reynolds number is. The unstable modes are in the neighbourhood of a hidden neutral mode for the case of a single fluid, which is entirely ignored in the usual theory of hydrodynamic stability, and are brought out by the viscosity stratification.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022112067000357

Instability due to viscosity stratification

Elementary analyses of the mean patterns of free convection from a line source and a point source are presented without regard to the specific means by which the gravitational action is produced. The derived functional relationships are then verified and completed through use of velocity and temperature measurements above sources of heat, the generalized form of the results permitting characteristics of the mean flow to be determined over a considerable range of the primary variables. These results should enable meteorologists to evaluate the role of the basic convective process in the more complex movements of the atmosphere. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1952.tb01005.x

Chia-Shun Yih

Papers

Stability of Liquid Flow down an Inclined Plane

Instability due to viscosity stratification

Gravitational Convection from a Boundary Source

Dynamics of nonhomogeneous fluids

Advanced mechanics of fluids