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

Slade, D.; Veremieiev, S.; Lee, Y.C.; Gaskell, P.H.

doi:10.1016/j.cep.2012.07.003

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

Slade, D.; Veremieiev, S.; Lee, Y.C.; Gaskell, P.H.

Authors

D. Slade

Dr Sergii Veremieiev s.veremieiev@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Y.C. Lee

Professor Philip Gaskell p.h.gaskell@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

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.

Citation

Slade, D., Veremieiev, S., Lee, Y., & Gaskell, P. (2013). Gravity-driven thin film flow: The influence of topography and surface tension gradient on rivulet formation. Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification, 68, 7-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2012.07.003

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 11, 2012
Online Publication Date	Jul 20, 2012
Publication Date	Jun 1, 2013
Deposit Date	Jan 26, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Aug 21, 2015
Journal	Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification
Print ISSN	0255-2701
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	68
Pages	7-12
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2012.07.003
Keywords	Thin film, Rivulet, Lubrication theory, Marangoni stress, Topography.

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Copyright Statement
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification, 68, June 2013, 10.1016/j.cep.2012.07.003.