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The spreading of thin liquid films on a water-air interface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2006

M. Foda
Affiliation:
Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Present address: Department of Civil Engineering, MIT., Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
R. G. Cox
Affiliation:
Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

The spreading on a water–air interface of a thin liquid film is examined for the situation in which surface tension gradients drive the motion. A similarity solution is obtained numerically for unidirectional spreading when some general restrictions concerning the form of the liquid film constitutive relation is made. This solution gives the size of the film as a function of time and also the velocity and thickness distribution along the spreading film. Experiments are performed which show good agreement with the theory.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1980 Cambridge University Press

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