WIAS Preprint No. 924, (2004)

Contact-line instability of dewetting thin films



Authors

  • Münch, Andreas
  • Wagner, Barbara
    ORCID: 0000-0001-8306-3645

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification

  • 76A20 76D27

2008 Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme

  • 97.10.Gz, 97.30.Qt, 97.80.Gm

Keywords

  • Lubrication approximation, stability, slippage

DOI

10.20347/WIAS.PREPRINT.924

Abstract

We investigate the linear stability of dewetting thin polymer films on hydrophobised substrates driven by Van-der-Waals forces, using a lubrication model. We focus on the role of slippage in the emerging instability at the three-phase contact-line and compare our results to the corresponding no-slip case. Our analysis shows that generically, small perturbations of the receding front are amplified, but in the slippage case by orders of magnitude larger than in the no-slip case. Moreover, while the perturbations become symmetrical in the no-slip case, they are asymmetrical in the slippage case. We furthermore extend our lubrication model to include effects of nonlinear curvature.

Appeared in

  • Phys. D. 209 (2005), pp.178-190.

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