Published in:
Physics of Fluids, 15 (2003) 9, Seite 2512-2524
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1063/1.1590978
ISSN:
1070-6631;
1089-7666
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
The lubrication equation governing free-surface thin film flows over topography is solved numerically including the effects of inertia and intermolecular forces. We study the initial value problem for a variety of initial conditions and perturbations and demonstrate that the free surface is strongly stable and can only be destabilized with large values of the dimensionless Hamaker’s constant and large amplitude free-surface perturbations, both of which are difficult to achieve in practice. The strong stability of thin film flows over topography is in agreement with the recent analysis by Kalliadasis and Homsy [J. Fluid Mech. 448, 387 (2001)].