A theoretical and numerical study of gravity driven coating flow on cylinder and sphere: two-dimensional and axisymmetric capillary waves

TL;DR

This paper develops theoretical and numerical models to analyze gravity-driven coating flows on cylinders and spheres, focusing on capillary wave behavior under high Bond number conditions and validating the models with numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces an asymptotic and numerical framework for understanding capillary waves on curved surfaces, extending previous work to cylindrical and spherical geometries.

Findings

Capillary ridges degenerate into a one-parameter family at high Bond numbers.

Composite solutions agree well with direct numerical solutions for high Bond numbers.

The asymptotic behavior is consistent across cylindrical and spherical surfaces, unaffected by partial wetting.

Abstract

The theoretical and numerical models for gravity driven coating flow on upper cylinder and sphere are formulated. Using a perturbation method, the governing equations which depend on one Bond number $Bo$ are derived for a liquid film flow down the outside of a horizontal cylinder and a sphere. They can be simplified to one-dimensional form due to the symmetries. The general structure of the two-dimensional and axisymmetric capillary waves under high $Bo$ condition is focused on. An asymptotic theory is used to solve for the free-surface profiles in the outer and inner region, respectively. Even though the evolution in the outer region is essentially different, there are inherent similarities in the inner region because the capillary ridges are proved to degenerate into the one-parameter family in high $Bo$ limit. Using appropriate numerical techniques, some parametric studies are performed on the profiles of the capillary waves. The spreading of the front recorded from the outer solutions quantitatively accords with the scaling laws in a top region at early time, but deviates obviously at later time. The comparison between the composite solutions constructed using the asymptotic theory and direct solutions calculated from the evolution equations is highlighted via both the global and local features. Agreement between the composite solutions and the direct solutions is good for high $Bo$ cases. This asymptotic behavior is common on both of cylindrical and spherical surfaces and not affected by the partial wetting process.