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The instability of a liquid film on a wall exposed to an air flow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

H. Ludwieg
Affiliation:
DFVLR Institute for Experimental Fluid Mechanics, D-3400 Göttingen, Bunsenstr. 10, FRG
H. Hornung
Affiliation:
Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

Abstract

The title problem, which is an important early element of the mechanism of the development of a surface oil flow visualization picture, is studied by a linear stability analysis that predicts the most strongly amplified wavenumber of transverse surface waves as a function of Reynolds number, surface tension, film viscosity and initial thickness of the film. Wall scaling virtually removes the additional dependence on Reynolds number. In a simple experiment the observed wavenumber agrees with the predicted most strongly amplified value to within the experimental accuracy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1989 Cambridge University Press

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References

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