Hydrodynamic instability of shear imposed falling film over a uniformly heated inclined undulated substrate

TL;DR

This study investigates the stability of a heated falling film over a wavy inclined surface under external shear, revealing how shear direction, temperature effects, and bottom steepness influence wave instability and flow behavior.

Contribution

The paper introduces a combined linear and weakly nonlinear stability analysis of shear-imposed falling films on heated wavy substrates, incorporating asymptotic and multi-scale methods for comprehensive insights.

Findings

External shear enhances surface wave instability when flow-directed.

Upstream shear can suppress instability by limiting gravity-driven forces.

Temperature-dependent density and surface tension significantly affect stability regions.

Abstract

Linear and weakly nonlinear stability analyses of an externally shear-imposed, gravity-driven falling film over a uniformly heated wavy substrate are studied. The longwave asymptotic expansion technique is utilized to formulate a single nonlinear free surface deflection equation. The linear stability criteria for the onset of instability are derived using the normal mode form in the linearized portion of the surface deformation equation. Linear stability theory reveals that the flow-directed sturdy external shear grows the surface wave instability by increasing the net driving force. On the contrary, the upstream-directed imposed shear may reduce the surface mode instability by restricting the gravity-driving force, which has the consequence of weakening the bulk velocity of the liquid film. However, the surface mode can be stabilized/destabilized by increasing the temperature-dependent density/surface-tension variation. Further, the bottom steepness shows dual behaviour on the surface instability depending upon the wavy wall's portion (uphill/downhill). At the downhill portion, the surface wave becomes more unstable than at the bottom substrate's uphill portion. Moreover, the multi-scale method is incorporated to obtain the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation in order to study the weakly nonlinear stability, confirming the existence of various flow regions of the liquid film. At any bottom portion (uphill/downhill), the flow-directed external shear expands the super-critical stable zones, which causes an amplification in the nonlinear wave amplitude, and the backflow-directed shear plays a counterproductive role. On the other hand, the super-critical stable region decreases or increases as long as the linear variation of density or surface tension increases with respect to the temperature, whereas the sub-critical unstable region exhibits an inverse trend.