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Fluid Dynamics Seminar

Monday, Nov. 14, 2011, 4:00 PM
Cullimore, Room 611
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Models and experiments of contact line instabilities in straight rivulets and rings

Alejandro G. Gonzalez

Departamento de Cs. Físicas y Ambientales, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Tandil, Argentina

Abstract

The formation of regular patterns of drops by spontaneous break up of liquid rivulets has many potential applications. In order to study this process, models and experiments are compared. The models used to relieve the singularity of the contact line are based either on van der Waals forces or on slip boundary conditions. Both liquid rings and straight rivulets are analyzed. A pseudospectral method is used to solve the problem with slip conditions, while simulations are used with van der Waals forces. The ring geometry has some advantages as no end effects are present, but poses other difficulties related to the appearance of new curvatures. The theoretical results are compared with experiments of millimetric straight rivulets in an inclined plane and with nanometric rings.