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

David Slade, Sergii Veremieiev, Yeaw Chu Lee, Philip Gaskell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

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 sur- face 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 inves- tigated, while both of the above features affect the merger of rivulets by either delaying or promoting the same, topography influences the direction of growth.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7–12
Number of pages6
JournalChemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification
Volume68
Early online date20 Jul 2012
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2013

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