Self-Similar Cusp Formation in Thin Liquid Films By Runaway Thermocapillary Forces

TL;DR

This paper investigates how large thermocapillary stresses in thin liquid films cause self-similar cusp formation, expanding understanding of flow-induced singularities and proposing a new non-contact lithographic fabrication method.

Contribution

It demonstrates analytically and numerically that thermocapillary forces can induce self-similar cusp formation in liquid films, a phenomenon not previously characterized.

Findings

Cusp formation exhibits self-similarity with a predictable conical tip slope.

Thermocapillary stresses can drive nonlinear runaway behavior leading to cusps.

The system enables a novel lithography technique for microarray fabrication.

Abstract

Many physical systems give rise to dynamical behavior leading to cuspidal shapes which represent a singularity of the governing equation. The cusp tip often exhibits self-similarity as well, indicative of scaling symmetry invariant in time up to a change of scale. Cusp formation can even occur in liquid systems when the driving force for fluid elongation is sufficiently strong to overcome leveling by capillarity. In almost all cases reported in the literature, however, the moving interface is assumed to be \textit{shear-free} and the operable forces orient exclusively in the direction normal to the advancing boundary. Here we focus on a system in which a slender liquid film is exposed to large thermocapillary stresses, a system previously shown to undergo a linear instability resembling microlens arrays. We demonstrate by analytic and numerical means how in the nonlinear regime these surface forces undergo self-similar runaway behavior leading to cusp formation with a conical tip whose slope can be prescribed from the analytic relation derived. On a fundamental level, this finding broadens our understanding of known categories of flows capable of cusp formation. More practically, the system geometry proposed offers a potentially novel lithographic method for one-step non-contact fabrication of cuspidal microarrays.