Surfactant instabilities on thin films

The deposition of a surfactant drop over a thin liquid film may be accompanied by a fingering instability. In this work, we present experimental results which identify the critical parameters that govern the shape and extend of the fingering phenomena. It was found that the normalized wavelength, [lambda]/t, scales with Marangoni number, Ma=[Delta][gamma]t/[mu]D, to the -1 exponent for any Marangoni higher than 4.3 · 10⁷. On the other end, for Marangoni < 4.3 · 10⁷ the normalized wavelength scales with Ma to the -0.4 but becomes in addition a funcion of the Prandtl number, Pr=[upsilon]/D, which demonstrates the critical significance of bulk diffusion on the spreding behavior. Finally, we present a numerical implementation of a mathematical model which is capable of reproducing the experimentally observed trends.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Aessopos, Angelica

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Anette Hosoi.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88902

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/88902