Session KP: Surface Tension Effect II

8:00 AM–10:10 AM, Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Salt Palace Convention Center - 251 D

Chair: Bill Ristenpart, Harvard University

Abstract: KP.00007 : Flow of a surfactant-laden thin liquid film down an inclined plane

9:18 AM–9:31 AM

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Authors:

  Rachel Levy
    (Harvey Mudd College)

  Michael Shearer
    (North Carolina State University)

  Thomas Witelski
    (Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics )

A thin liquid film flowing down an inclined plane can be described by a scalar fourth-order partial differential equation. The addition of insoluble surfactant dramatically alters the free surface of the film. A second equation modeling the transport and diffusion of surfactant is coupled to the height equation. Using numerical simulations and asymptotics, we explore the dependence of traveling wave solutions on capillary, Peclet and Bond numbers.