Droplet formation in the rupture of a liquid film under the action of a thermal load

The deformation and rupture of a liquid film, suspended between two solid walls, under the action of a localized thermal load is considered. For studying this process, a two-dimensional model is used, which describes the motion of a thin layer of a viscous non-isothermal liquid under microgravity conditions. For modeling the dynamics of the liquid, the Navier-Stokes equations in the “vorticity—stream function” variables are used. A numerical analysis of the influence of thermal loads on the deformation and the mechanism of the rupture of freely suspended films is performed. Is is shown that for a certain width of the thermal beam acting on the film free surface the rupture of the film may occur with the formation of a droplet. The results of the solution of model problems are presented.     

Effect of the thermophysical properties of the liquid on the rupture of a film under a thermal load. Role of the Prandtl number

The rupture of freely hanging liquid films depending on the Prandtl number is considered. The process is studied using a mathematical model based on two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations which describes the motion of a thin layer of a nonisothermal viscous liquid in microgravity. It is shown that if the temperature on the entire free surface is given in advance, the lifetime of the film, the character of the rupture, and the position of the free surface, with the set of forces taken into account in the model, do not depend on the Prandtl number. If temperature is specified only in some region of the free surface, and on the rest of the surface, it is to be determined in the process of solving the problem, the Prandtl number plays an important role. Results of solution of model problems are presented.     

Stability of a vertical liquid film with consideration of the marangoni effect and heat exchange with the environment

The stability of a free vertical liquid film under the combined action of gravity and thermocapillary forces has been studied. An exact solution of the Navier-Stokes and thermal conductivity equations is obtained for the case of plane steady flow with constant film thickness. It is shown that if the free surfaces of the film are perfectly heat insulated, the liquid flow rate through the cross section of the layer is zero. It is found that to close the model with consideration of the heat exchange with the environment, it is necessary to specify the liquid flow rate and the derivative of the temperature with respect to the longitudinal coordinate or the flow rate and the film thickness. The stability of the solution with constant film thickness at small wave numbers is studied. A solution of the spectral problem for perturbations in the form of damped oscillations is obtained.     

Lattice Boltzmann study of the interaction between a single solid particle and a thin liquid film

The isothermal single-component multi-phase lattice Boltzmann method(LBM) combined with the particle motion model is used to simulate the detailed process of liquid film rupture induced by a single spherical particle.The entire process of the liquid film rupture can be divided into two stages.In Stage 1,the particle contacts with the liquid film and moves into it due to the interfacial force and finally penetrates the liquid film.Then in Stage 2,the upper and lower liquid surfaces of the thin film are driven by the capillary force and approach to each other along the surface of the particle,resulting in a complete rupture.It is found that a hydrophobic particle with a contact angle of 106.7° shows the shortest rupture duration when the liquid film thickness is less than the particle radius.When the thickness of the liquid film is greater than the immersed depth of the particle at equilibrium,the time of liquid film rupture caused by a hydrophobic particle will be increased.On the other hand,a moderately hydrophilic particle can form a bridge in the middle of the liquid film to enhance the stability of the thin liquid film.     

Quasi-steady-state flows in a liquid film in a gas: Comparison of two methods of describing waves

The motion of thin films of a viscous incompressible liquid in a gas under the action of capillary forces is studied. The surface tension depends on the surfactant concentration, and the liquid is nonvolatile. The motion is described by the well-known model of quasi-steady-state viscous film flow. The linear-wave solutions are compared with the solution using the Navier-Stokes equations. Situations are studied where a solution close to the inviscid two-dimensional solutions exists and in the case of long wavelength, the occurrence of sound waves in the film due to the Gibbs surface elasticity is possible. The behavior of the exact solutions near the region of applicability of asymptotic equations is studied, and nonmonotonic dependences of the wave characteristics on wavenumber are obtained. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 103–111, May–June, 2007.     

Numerical studies for flow and heat transfer of the Powell-Eyring fluid thin film over an unsteady stretching sheet with internal heat generation using the chebyshev finite difference method

An analysis is carried out to study the unsteady two-dimensional Powell-Eyring flow and heat transfer to a laminar liquid film from a horizontal stretching surface in the presence of internal heat generation. The flow of a thin fluid film and subsequent heat transfer from the stretching surface is investigated with the aid of a similarity transformation. The transformation enables to reduce the unsteady boundary layer equations to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. A numerical solution of the resulting nonlinear differential equations is found by using an efficient Chebyshev finite difference method. A comparison of numerical results is made with the earlier published results for limiting cases. The effects of the governing parameters on the flow and thermal fields are thoroughly examined and discussed.     

Simultaneous heat and mass transfer inside a vertical tube in evaporating a heated falling alcohols liquid film into a stream of dry air

A numerical study of the evaporation in mixed convection of a pure alcohol liquid film: ethanol and methanol was investigated. It is a turbulent liquid film falling on the internal face of a vertical tube. A laminar flow of dry air enters the vertical tube at constant temperature in the downward direction. The wall of the tube is subjected to a constant and uniform heat flux. The model solves the coupled parabolic governing equations in both phases including turbulent liquid film together with the boundary and interfacial conditions. The systems of equations obtained by using an implicit finite difference method are solved by TDMA method. A Van Driest model is adopted to simulate the turbulent liquid film flow. The influence of the inlet liquid flow, Reynolds number in the gas flow and the wall heat flux on the intensity of heat and mass transfers are examined. A comparison between the results obtained for studied alcohols and water in the same conditions is made.     

Bifurcation analysis of the travelling waves on a falling power-law fluid film

Non-linear waves on the surface of a falling film of power-law fluid on a vertical plane are investigated. The waves are described by evolution equations previously derived as a generalization of the model for the Newtonian liquid. This paper presents a numerical bifurcation analysis of the steady travelling waves on a falling film described by an equation containing three parameters. It is shown that the wave regimes are sensitive to the power-law index as well as to the film parameter and the wavenumber that is typical for the Newtonian liquid.     

Thermal radiation effects on the flow and heat transfer in a liquid film on an unsteady stretching sheet

The influence of thermal radiation on the flow and heat transfer within Newtonian liquid film over an unsteady stretching sheet with and without thermocapillarity is examined. The governing non‐linear partial differential equations describing the problem are reduced to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations using similarity transformation, which is solved numerically for different values of the thermal radiation parameter and the thermocapillarity parameter. The results show that the dimensionless velocity, the film thickness and the local Nusselt number increase as the thermocapillarity parameter increases, while the free surface temperature decreases with increasing the thermocapillarity parameter. Also, both the dimensionless temperature and the free surface temperature increase and the local Nusselt number decreases as the thermal radiation parameter increases. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Variational Model of Disjoining Pressure: Liquid Film on a Nonplanar Surface

Variational methods have been successfully used in modelling thin liquid films in numerous theoretical studies of wettability. In this article, the variational model of the disjoining pressure is extended to the general case of a two-dimensional solid surface. The Helmholtz free energy functional depends both on the disjoining pressure isotherm and on the shape of the solid surface. The augmented Young–Laplace equation (AYLE) is a nonlinear second-order partial differential equation. A number of solutions describing wetting films on spherical grains have been obtained. In the case of cylindrical films, the phase portrait technique describes the entire variety of mathematically feasible solutions. It turns out that a periodic solution, which would describe wave-like wetting films, does not satisfy Jacobi’s condition of the classical calculus of variations. Therefore, such a solution is nonphysical. The roughness of the solid surface significantly affects liquid film stability. AYLE solutions suggest that film rupture is more likely at a location where the pore-wall surface is most exposed into the pore space, and the curvature is positive.     

Wave regimes of ascending flow of a thin layer of a viscous liquid in contact with a gas

The flow of a liquid in thin layers is one of the hydrodynamic problems of chemistry and heat engineering. The large surface area of films and their small thickness make it possible to accelerate thermal, diffusive, and chemical processes at the gas-liquid boundary.Theoretical studies of liquid flow in a vertical descending thin layer are presented in [1–4]. In this paper we study ascending wave flows of a liquid in a thin vertical layer in contact with a gas, i.e., flows in the direction opposite the action of the force due to gravity, with account for the action of the gas on the liquid surface. Such motions are encountered when oil is extracted from strata that are saturated with gas. At some distance from the stratum the oil and gas separate: the gas travels at high velocity inside the pipe, occupying a considerable portion of the pipe, and the liquid is displaced toward the pipe walls, forming a thin film. In certain cases a wave-like interface develops between the oil and gas that travels with a velocity greater than that of the liquid but less than the average gas velocity. Similar phenomena are observed in high velocity mass exchangers.We examine the effect of the gas for both laminar and turbulent flow.Studies that neglect the effect of the gas flow on the liquid show that for waves on the film surface whose lengths are considerably longer than the average thickness of the layer, the liquid motion in the film is described by boundary layer equations in which account is taken of the mass force, i.e., the force due to gravity. With some approximation, we can assume that in accounting for the effect of the gas on the liquid the liquid flow is described by these same equations.     

Integral treatment of subcooled forced convection film boiling on a flat plate

Subcooled forced convection film boiling on a flat plate has been analysed by means of an integral method. Following the two phase boundary layer theory, the momentum and energy equations for both liquid and vapor layers are considered along with the compatibility conditions on the liquid-vapor interface. Subsequently, the governing equations are reduced to a set of algebraic equations which can readily be solved for given parameters. Comparison of the present solution with the Cess and Sparrow solution reveals an excellent performance of the present solution procedure. The effects of superheating, subcooling and liquid Prandtl number on the hydrodynamic and heat transfer characteristics are fully discussed. Furthermore, the asymptotic formulas are derived for the local Nusselt number and skin friction coefficient through a careful examination of the physical limiting conditions.     

Heat transfer characteristics of thin power-law liquid films over horizontal stretching sheet with internal heating and variable thermal coefficient

The effect of internal heating source on the film momentum and thermal transport characteristic of thin finite power-law liquids over an accelerating unsteady horizontal stretched interface is studied. Unlike most classical works in this field, a general surface temperature distribution of the liquid film and the generalized Fourier’s law for varying thermal conductivity are taken into consideration. Appropriate similarity transformations are used to convert the strongly nonlinear governing partial differential equations (PDEs) into a boundary value problem with a group of two-point ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The correspondence between the liquid film thickness and the unsteadiness parameter is derived with the BVP4C program in MATLAB. Numerical solutions to the self-similarity ODEs are obtained using the shooting technique combined with a Runge-Kutta iteration program and Newton’s scheme. The effects of the involved physical parameters on the fluid’s horizontal velocity and temperature distribution are presented and discussed.     

等热流密度加热垂直下降液膜的研究

利用等热流密度加热条件下降膜流动的三维模型方程进行线性稳定性分析和数值模拟。线性稳定性分析表明,模型方程在小到中等Reynolds数下都适用,并且流向不稳定性增长率随着Reynolds数和Marangoni数增加而增加,展向不稳定性增长率则随着Marangoni数增加而增加,随着Reynolds数增加而减小,流向和展向对扰动波数都存在一个不稳定区间。三维数值模拟表明,在等热流密度加热条件下,液膜在随机扰动的情况下最终会形成带孤立波的三维溪流状结构,液膜与气体的换热也因溪流状结构的出现而加强;在随机扰动的基础上引入占优势地位的展向最不稳定扰动会使得换热增强,液膜会提前破裂;在随机扰动的基础上引入占优势地位的流向最不稳定扰动时,液膜的换热会增强,但不会提前破裂;在随机扰动的基础上同时引入占优势地位的流向和展向最不稳定扰动时,换热会加强且液膜会提前破裂。     

Steady-state conditions of a nonisothermal film with a heat-insulated free boundary

The equilibrium shapes of a nonisothermal liquid film with a heat-insulated free surface for large Marangoni numbers are investigated in the long-wave approximation using a combination of analytical and numerical methods. It is proved that the two-dimensional problem of the equilibrium of a strip-shaped film has a steady-state solution for an arbitrary large temperature gradient on the boundaries of the strip. An increase in this gradient leads to an abrupt thinning of the film near the heated boundary, which can result in instability and rupture of the film. In the equilibrium problem for a film fixed on a circular contour, the nonuniform distribution of the heat flux on the contour was found to have a significant influence on the free-surface shape. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 59–73, July–August, 2008.     

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.     

Numerical study of evaporation by mixed convection of a binary liquid film flowing down the wall of two coaxial cylinders

Evaporation by mixed convection of a binary liquid film flowing down the external wall of a vertical cylinder has been investigated numerically. Two cases were considered: one where the cylinder wall is soaked with a liquid, and another where a liquid film flows along this wall. Heat, mass and momentum transfer in the liquid film and the vapor phase are modelled by mixed convection equations. In order to locate the liquid–vapor interface, a suitable coordinate transformation is carried out with suitable variables. The discretization of the dimensionless equations by an implicit difference scheme leads to a system of algebraic equations, which are solved by using Gauss algorithm for the momentum conservation equations and Thomas algorithm for the energy and diffusion conservation equations. The film thickness is calculated by the Newtons method. Results show, in particular, that the film thickness cannot be neglected and that the latent heat transfers are increasingly significant as the liquid film components become more volatile.     

Influence of the thermal boundary layer on the contact layer between a liquid and a cold plate in a solidification process

In this paper, the influence of both the hydrodynamic and the thermal boundary layer on the solidification process of the flowing liquid on a cold plate is theoretically analyzed. Heat transfer between a frozen layer which is created and a laminar flowing liquid over that layer is considered. The development of the boundary layers and the relation between them on the solidification process are studied. An integral method for the solution of the boundary layer equations was used to obtain approximative solutions. The influence of the Prandtl and Reynolds number on the formation of the solid crust is shown and discussed for time dependent and steady-state solutions.     

Non-equilibrium condensation of water and carbontetrachloride vapour in a shock-tube

This paper deals on molecular levels with the condensation parameter and the condensation coefficient (sticking probability) of both water and carbontetrachloride vapour. The time-dependent thickness of a liquid film on a shock-tube endwall behind a reflected shock wave is measured by an optical method based on multiple reflections of light in the film. The measured thickness of the film is compared with theoretical one which is a solution of gasdynamics equations under molecular gasdynamical boundary conditions. The condensation parameter and the condensation coefficient of the above two kinds of vapour are determined from the comparison between experiment and theory. They are reasonably explained by the transition state theory on the basis of statistical mechanics of gases and liquids.