Open Access

ARTICLE

Thin Films in the Presence of Chemical Reactions

by A. Pereira¹, P.M.J. Trevelyan², U. Thiele³, S. Kalliadasis¹

1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial CollegeLondon, London SW7 2AZ, UK
2 Centre for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, CP 231, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
3 Max-Planck-Institutfür Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Str. 38 D-01187 Dresden, Germany. Presentaddress: School of Mathematics, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2007, 3(4), 303-316. https://doi.org/10.3970/fdmp.2007.003.303

Abstract

We investigate the interaction between thin films and chemical reactions by using two prototype systems: a thin liquid film falling down a planar inclined substrate in the presence of an exothermic chemical reaction and a horizontal thin liquid film with a reactive mixture of insoluble surfactants on its surface. In the first case the chemical reaction has a stabilizing influence on the dynamics of the film and dampens the free-surface solitary pulses. In the second case the chemical reaction can destabilize the film and lead to the formation of free-surface solitary pulses.

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Keywords

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