Plenary talk given at the 90th Annual Meeting of Argentine Physical Society,  September '05 (PDF)

Recent collaborators:

Javier Diez, UNCPBA, Tandil, Argentina
Alejandro Gonzalez, UNCPBA, Tandil, Argentina
Juan Gomba, UNCPBA, Tandil, Argentina
Annette (Peko) Hosoi, MIT
Nebojsa Murisic (former PhD student), UCLA
Philip Rack, U. Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Burt Tilley, Olin College
Tetyana Segin (former PhD student), U. Alberta

[See below for recent publications]

The flow of thin films is relevant in a number of different fields, such as engineering (microchip production), biology (lining of mammalian lungs), and chemistry (flow of surface active materials). The dynamics of the fronts of these films is not very well understood. In many situations, the fronts become unstable, leading to the formation of finger-like rivulets, saw-tooth patterns, or, in the case of surfactant flow, dendritic tip-splitting petals.

The figure shows an example of instabilities which occur during evaporation of sessile alcohol drops on silicon surfaces.  More details about this particular problem can be found here.

During the years, we have considered a number of different problems which are listed below in approximately chronological order.

Here are postscript files of two talks given at NJIT June '00: Part I, Part II)

Animation of the flow down a vertical plane: 2D (Quicktime , Avi ), or 3D Avi .

Thin films related teaching:

Selected recent publications on thin liquid films:

(see here for the complete list).

Modeling evaporation of sessile drops with moving contact lines, with N. Murisic, Phys. Rev. E,  78, 065301R (2008)

On long-wave instabilities in isothermal binary fluid films, with Z. Borden, H. Grandjean, A.E. Hosoi and B.S. Tilley,  Phys. Fluids, 20, 102103 (2008)

On the breakup of fluid films of finite and infinite extent,  with J. Diez, Phys. Fluids, 19, 072107 (2007)

Dynamic Structure Formation at the Fronts of Volatile Liquid Drops,  with Y. Gotkis, I. Ivanov, N. Murisic, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 186101 (2006).

Long-wave linear stability theory for two-fluid channel flow including compressibility effects,  with T. Segin and B. S. Tilley, IMA J. Appl. Math., 71, 715 (2006)

On flooding and undercompressive shocks in countercurrent two-layer flow,  with T. Segin and B. S. Tilley, J. Fluid Mech., 532, 217 (2005)

On nontrivial traveling waves in thin film flows including contact lines, with J. Diez, Physica D, 209, 135 (2005)

Instabilities in the flow of thin films on inhomogeneous surfaces, with J. Diez, Phys. Fluids 16, 3341 (2004)

Spreading of a thin two-dimensional strip of fluid on a vertical plane: Experiments and modeling, with A.G. Gonzalez, J. Diez, J. Gomba, R. Gratton, Phys. Rev. E 70, 026309 (2004)

Instabilities in the flow of thin liquid films, SIAM Review 45, 95 (2003)

Simulations of thin liquid films and drops in higher dimensions, with J. Diez, J. Comp. Phys. 173, 274 (2002)

Flow of thin films on patterned surfaces: Controlling the instability, with J. Diez, Phys. Rev. E 65, 045301 (2002)

Pattern formation in gravity driven flow of thin films: Constant flux flow, with J. Diez, Phys. Fluids. 13, 3168 (2001)

Contact line instabilities of thin liquid films, with J. Diez, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 632 (2001)

Global models for moving contact lines, with J. Diez and A. L. Bertozzi, Phys. Rev. E 63, 011208 (2001)

Nonlinear dynamics and transient growth of driven contact lines, with A. L. Bertozzi, Phys. Fluids 11, 3560 (1999)

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