Evaporation and flow dynamics of thin, shear-driven liquid films in microgap channels

Thin and ultra-thin shear-driven liquid films in a narrow channel are a promising candidate for the thermal management of advanced semiconductor devices in earth and space applications. Such flows experience complex, and as yet poorly understood, two-phase flow phenomena requiring significant advances in fundamental research before they could be broadly applied. This paper focuses on the results obtained in experiments with locally heated shear-driven liquid films in a flat mini-channel. A detailed map of the flow sub-regimes in a shear-driven liquid film flow of water and FC-72 have been obtained for a 2 mm channel operating at room temperature. While the water film can be smooth under certain liquid/gas flow rates, the surface of an intensively evaporating film of FC-72 is always distorted by a pattern of waves and structures. It was found, that when heated the shear-driven liquid films are less likely to rupture than gravity-driven liquid films. For shear-driven water films the critical heat flux was found of up to 10 times higher than that for a falling film, which makes shear-driven films (annular or stratified two-phase flows) more suitable for cooling applications than falling liquid films.     

The influence of loading on the rigidity modulus and plastic flow in adhesive films

Summary The effect of loading on the rigidity modulus and plastic flow of adhesive films has been investigated. It is found that with the adhesives used, loading provokes as increased rigidity modulus. A plasticizer enhances this effect, which is strongest for a casein film.     

Development of a PLIC-VOF method for the dynamic simulation of entry region flow in a laminar falling film

The present work describes a numerical procedure to simulate the development of hydrodynamic entry region in a gravity-driven laminar liquid film flow over an inclined plane. It provides a better insight into the physics of developing film in entry region. A novel numerical approach is proposed which has the potential to provide solutions for the complex physics of liquid film spreading on solid walls. The method employs an incompressible flow algorithm to solve the governing equations, a PLIC-VOF method to capture the free surface evolution and a continuum surface force (CSF) model to include the effect of surface tension. To account for the moving contact line on the solid substrate, a precursor film model based wall treatment is implemented. Liquid film flow has been simulated for the Reynolds number range of 5 ≤ Re ≤ 37.5, and the predicted results are found to agree well with the available analytical and experimental data.     

Multilayer film casting of modified Giesekus fluids Part 2. Linear stability analysis

A linear stability analysis of the multilayer film casting of polymeric fluids has been conducted. A modified Giesekus model was used to characterize the rheological behaviors of the fluids. The critical draw ratio at the onset of draw resonance was found to depend on the elongational and shear viscosities of the fluids. Extensional-thickening has a stabilizing effect, whereas shear-thinning and extensional-thinning have destabilizing effects. The critical draw ratios for bilayer films of various thickness fractions are bounded by those for single layer films of the two fluids. When the two fluids have a comparable elongational viscosity, the critical draw ratio at a given Deborah number varies linearly with thickness fraction. When one fluid has a much larger elongational viscosity, it dominates the flow and the critical draw ratios at most thickness fractions remain close to its critical draw ratio as a single layer film. When the dominating fluid exhibits extensional-thickening, a film with a certain thickness fraction has more than one critical draw ratio at a given Deborah number and may not exhibit draw resonance within some range of the Deborah number.     

Multiscale computations of thin films in multiphase flows

In multiphase flows thin films are often encountered when fluid masses collide. These films can become very thin and in direct numerical simulations (DNS) it is often impractical to resolve their thickness fully, even with adaptive grid refining. Here we examine the collision of a fluid drop with a wall and develop a multiscale approach to compute the flow in the film between the drop and the wall. By using a semi-analytical model for the flow in the film we capture the evolution of films thinner than the grid spacing reasonably well.     

Linear stability in the flow of a liquid film concurrent with a gas flow

The two-phase flow of liquid films are often encountered in practice, but the number of theoretical papers devoted to this problem is limited. The problem of the linear stability of a viscous liquid film subjected to a gas flow has been formulated in [1] and, in somewhat different form, in [2]. The linear stability of plane-parallel motion in films has been studied analytically in [1–8] for some limiting cases. The range of validity of the analytic approaches remains an open question. Therefore, an exact numerical analysis of flow stability over a fairly broad range is required. In the present paper a separate solution of the problem for the gas and the liquid is shown to be possible. The Orr-Sommerfeld equation has been integrated numerically, and the results are compared to the results of analytic calculations.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 143–146, January–February, 1976.The author is grateful to É. É. Markovich for directing the work and to V. Ya. Shkadov for his interest in the work and many useful comments.     

An investigation of falling liquid films on a vertical heated/cooled plate

The temperature field and flow patterns of a liquid film flowing over a vertical uniformly heated surface have been experimentally investigated. Our experiments show that this film flow is sensitive to the heating conditions. When the film is cooled by the substrate, its surface area increases, and when it is heated its surface area decreases. The analysis attributed the changing properties of the flow to lateral Marangoni effect, i.e. to surface tension gradient transverse to the flow. The influence of the viscosity variations on the non-isothermal liquid film flow was also considered and compared with that of the surface tension variations. It was shown that the contraction or extension of the films was mainly caused by the lateral surface tension gradient that might be determined by the viscosity variations.     

A film flow model for analysing gravity-driven,thin wavy fluid films

To analyse the physics underlying gravity-driven runoff of thin wavy films, a film flow model is developed, and is solved with computational fluid dynamics. This model is based on the lubrication theory, and takes into account the gravitational, wall shear and surface tension forces. A key characteristic of the model is that it assumes only one computational cell over the film height, which enables studying film flow on larger computational domains. A main aim of this study is to perform a detailed validation of the numerical model. The film flow model is validated against several experiments of gravity-driven, thin fluid films on smooth surfaces. The time-averaged film thickness and the fluid speed profiles predicted by the model show very good agreement with experimental results. Similarly, the film flow model is able to predict the wave speeds with sufficient accuracy. The energy spectra of the waves, where higher frequency waves are present in film flows at higher Reynolds numbers, show an exponentially decaying trend at these high frequencies. The model performs better than the Nusselt equation for film flows, which under-predicts the time-averaged film thickness and over-predicts the time-averaged fluid speeds, even for flows at low Reynolds numbers. The film flow model is compared qualitatively for fingering behaviour. This model also allows to investigate film flows on large surfaces, which can be rough, curved and of complex geometrical shape.     

Low shear viscometry in relation to brushing

Summary The flow of decorative paints should be capable of prediction from a rheological study of the paint. By taking into consideration the loss of solvent from a film during the early drying stages, a good estimation of its flow properties in relatively high film thicknesses can be obtained.Compensation for loss of solvent during drying can be made for arbitrary drying conditions which eliminate much of the complications of testing films under practical conditions. This technique is generally applicable to brushing systems where only loss of solvent is expected to occur during the period of time in which flow takes place, and cannot be applied to systems in which other changes might occur.Factors affecting the rate of change of flow with film thickness have not been studied, although the technique described may be capable of extension in this field.Presented at the Joint Meeting of the British Society of Rheology and Research Association of British Paint, Colour and Varnish Manufacturers at Teddington, April 29, 1964.     

A microbeam bending method for studying stress-strain relations for metal thin films on silicon substrates

We have developed a microbeam bending technique for determining elastic-plastic, stress-strain relations for thin metal films on silicon substrates. The method is similar to previous microbeam bending techniques, except that triangular silicon microbeams are used in place of rectangular beams. The triangular beam has the advantage that the entire film on the top surface of the beam is subjected to a uniform state of plane strain as the beam is deflected, unlike the standard rectangular geometry where the bending is concentrated at the support. To extract the average stress-strain relations for the film, we present a method of analysis that requires computation of the neutral plane for bending, which changes as the film deforms plastically. This method can be used to determine the elastic-plastic properties of thin metal films on silicon substrates up to strains of about 1%.Utilizing this technique, both yielding and strain hardening of Cu thin films on silicon substrates have been investigated. Copper films with dual crystallographic textures and different grain sizes, as well as others with strong 〈1 1 1〉 textures have been studied. Three strongly textured 〈1 1 1〉 films were studied to examine the effect of film thickness on the deformation properties of the film. These films show very high rates of work hardening, and an increase in the yield stress and work hardening rate with decreasing film thickness, consistent with current dislocation models.     

Plastic deformation of freestanding thin films: Experiments and modeling

Experimental measurements and computational results for the evolution of plastic deformation in freestanding thin films are compared. In the experiments, the stress-strain response of two sets of Cu films is determined in the plane-strain bulge test. One set of samples consists of electroplated Cu films, while the other set is sputter-deposited. Unpassivated films, films passivated on one side and films passivated on both sides are considered. The calculations are carried out within a two-dimensional plane strain framework with the dislocations modeled as line singularities in an isotropic elastic solid. The film is modeled by a unit cell consisting of eight grains, each of which has three slip systems. The film is initially free of dislocations which then nucleate from a specified distribution of Frank-Read sources. The grain boundaries and any film-passivation layer interfaces are taken to be impenetrable to dislocations. Both the experiments and the computations show: (i) a flow strength for the passivated films that is greater than for the unpassivated films and (ii) hysteresis and a Bauschinger effect that increases with increasing pre-strain for passivated films, while for unpassivated films hysteresis and a Bauschinger effect are small or absent. Furthermore, the experimental measurements and computational results for the 0.2% offset yield strength stress, and the evolution of hysteresis and of the Bauschinger effect are in good quantitative agreement.     

Tensile response of passivated films with climb-assisted dislocation glide

The tensile response of single crystal films passivated on two sides is analysed using climb enabled discrete dislocation plasticity. Plastic deformation is modelled through the motion of edge dislocations in an elastic solid with a lattice resistance to dislocation motion, dislocation nucleation, dislocation interaction with obstacles and dislocation annihilation incorporated through a set of constitutive rules. The dislocation motion in the films is by glide-only or by climb-assisted glide whereas in the surface passivation layers dislocation motion occurs by glide-only and penalized by a friction stress. For realistic values of the friction stress, the size dependence of the flow strength of the oxidised films was mainly a geometrical effect resulting from the fact that the ratio of the oxide layer thickness to film thickness increases with decreasing film thickness. However, if the passivation layer was modelled as impenetrable, i.e. an infinite friction stress, the plastic hardening rate of the films increases with decreasing film thickness even for geometrically self-similar specimens. This size dependence is an intrinsic material size effect that occurs because the dislocation pile-up lengths become on the order of the film thickness. Counter-intuitively, the films have a higher flow strength when dislocation motion is driven by climb-assisted glide compared to the case when dislocation motion is glide-only. This occurs because dislocation climb breaks up the dislocation pile-ups that aid dislocations to penetrate the passivation layers. The results also show that the Bauschinger effect in passivated thin films is stronger when dislocation motion is climb-assisted compared to films wherein dislocation motion is by glide-only.     

Normal droplet impact on horizontal moving films: an investigation of impact behaviour and regimes

Investigations of the impact regimes for a liquid droplet impacting onto horizontal moving liquid films are presented here for the first time. The aim of this study is to show the main impact outcomes and to highlight the effect the movement of films has upon these outcomes. The droplet diameters used in this experiment were 2.47 and 3.86 mm with impact Weber number of between 0.6 and 460. The Reynolds number of the moving film was between 351 and 1,818 depending on the flow rate (1–5.5 L/min) with changes in the film height of between 4.3 and 9.4 mm. The results showed that the impact outcomes exhibit the same regimes established for the impact on static liquids but with different transition boundaries. Moreover, the shape of the impact outcomes is unsymmetrical similar to the inclined impact on static liquids. The impact outcomes are shown to undergo a transition as the Reynolds number of the film increases, this occurs at a threshold value close to the expected transition between laminar and turbulent flow.     

Numerical simulation of convective heat transfer to a radial free surface jet impinging on a hot solid

The convective heat transfer between a circular free surface impinging jet and a solid surface has been studied numerically. The thin liquid film formed on the surface has been assumed to be in non-turbulent free surface flow. The effects of surface tension, viscosity, gravity and heat transfer between the film flow and the solid surface have been taken into account. The flow structure on a non-heated surface has been investigated first. Next, the steady-state flow structure in the liquid film as well as the heat transfer has been examined. The predicted results have been compared with experimental data for the purpose of validating the analysis. The hydrodynamics of the liquid film and the heat transfer processes have been investigated numerically to understand the physics of the phenomena. Received on 5 October 1998     

FLOW-INDUCED VIBRATION OF FREE EDGES OF THIN FILMS

During manufacturing processes of thin materials such as paper, photographic film, and magnetic film, which are handled as continuous sheets and subjected to drying air-flows, the interaction of the air with the web can cause the free edges to vibrate violently. This phenomenon is related to the waving motion of a flag in the wind, except that the thin films under consideration are under tension in the direction of the air-flow or at right angles to it. A travelling-wave analysis was done based on incompressible potential-flow theory; the critical flow speed, wave speed, wavelength, and flutter frequency were predicted. A closed-form solution of the critical flow speed is suggested. Experiments were carried out with stationary thin films mounted in a wind tunnel where the direction of tension was perpendicular to the flow direction. It was shown that the analysis, which assumes that the film is infinitely long in the flow direction, could successfully predict the critical flow speed above which violent edge vibrations occur.     

随动耦合变阶梯径向滑动轴承动力特征及稳定性的研究

用有限差分法循环迭代求解了随动耦合变阶梯结构径向滑动轴承油膜压力的雷诺方程和两阶段油膜耦合变阶梯结构的流量控制方程。在分析轴承油膜压力形成机量及静力特性的基础上,采用对位移和速度的小扰动法计算了轴承的动力特性系数,考察了运转参数对这种轴承承载特性、动力特性系数、等效刚度、界限涡动比以界限失稳转速的影响,结果发现合理地选择设计参数可以使这种轴承具有较好的静力特性、动力特性和稳定性。     

Evaporation of Falling and Shear-Driven Thin Films on Smooth and Grooved Surfaces

One of the most important tasks in development of modern gas turbine combustors is the reduction of NO_x emissions. An effective way to reduce the NO_x emission is using the lean premixed prevaporization (LPP) concept. An important phenomenon taking place in LPP chambers is the evaporation of thin fuel films. To increase the fuel evaporation rate, the use of microstructured walls has been suggested. The wall microstructures make use of the capillary forces to evenly distribute the liquid fuel over the wall, so that the appearance of uncontrolled dry patches can be avoided. Moreover, the wall structures promote the thin film evaporation characterized by ultra-high evaporation rates. An experimental setup was built for the investigation of thin liquid films falling down on the outer surface of vertical tubes with either a smooth or structured surface. In the first testing phase water is used, fuel like liquids will be used later on. The thin film can be heated from both sides, by hot oil flowing inside the tube, and by hot compressed air flowing in co-current direction to the thin film. The film is partly evaporated along the flow. Results for the wavy film structure at different Reynolds numbers are reported. For theoretical investigations a model describing the hydrodynamics and heat transfer due to evaporation of the gravity- and shear-driven undisturbed liquid film on structured surfaces was developed. For low Reynolds numbers or low liquid mass fluxes the wall surface is only partly covered with liquid and the heat transfer is shown to be governed by the evaporation of the ultra-thin film in the vicinity of the three-phase contact line. A numerical model for the solution of a two-dimensional free-surface flow of a liquid film over a structured wall was also developed. The Navier–Stokes equations are solved using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) technique. The energy equation is included in the model. The model is verified by comparison with data from the literature showing favorable agreement. In particular, the proposed model predicts the formation of capillary waves observed in the experiments. The model is used to investigate the flow of liquid on a structured wall. This calculation is the first step towards the modeling of a three-dimensional wavy flow of a gravity- and shear-driven film along a wall with longitudinal grooves. It is found that due to the Marangoni effect, a circulating flow arises within the cavity, thereby leading to an enhancement in the evaporation rate.     

Linear resonance in viscous films on inclined wavy planes

We study viscous gravity-driven films flowing over periodically undulated substrates. Linear analysis describes steady flow along small amplitude corrugations for films of arbitrary thickness. Solving the resulting system numerically, we demonstrate resonance (or, possibly, near resonance) and identify different behaviours for thin, intermediate and thick films. Approximating the leading-order velocity profile by the free surface value allows for an analytic solution, which – in the limit of high Reynolds numbers – recovers the different regimes and reveals the relevant physical mechanisms. Our results support the view that the resonance is associated with an interaction of the undulated film with capillary-gravity waves travelling against the mean flow direction. As a consequence, the resonance peak is attained under conditions that render the wave phase velocity equal to zero in the laboratory reference frame, and thus permit direct exchange of energy between the steadily deformed film and the free surface.     

Wrinkling of a charged elastic film on a viscous layer

A thin metallic film deposited on a compliant polymeric substrate begins to wrinkle under compression induced in curing process and afterwards cooling of the system. The wrinkle mode depends upon the thin film elasticity, thickness, compressive strain, as well as mechanical properties of the compliant substrate. This paper presents a simple model to study the modulation of the wrinkle mode of thin metallic films bonded on viscous layers in external electric field. During the procedure, linear perturbation analysis was performed for determining the characteristic relation that governs the evolution of the plane-strain wrinkle of the thin films under varying conditions, i.e., the maximally unstable wrinkle mode as a function of the film surface charge, film elasticity and thickness, misfit strain, as well as thickness and viscosity of the viscous layer. It shows that, in proper electric field, thin film may wrinkle subjected to either compression or tension. Therefore, external electric field can be employed to modulate the wrinkle mode of thin films. The present results can be used as the theoretical basis for wrinkling analysis and mode modulation in surface metallic coatings, drying adhesives and paints, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), etc.