Abstract
THE dynamics of spreading of thin liquid films are important to many technological and biological processes, including tertiary oil recovery, coating processes, the formation and protection of microchips and biological cell interactions. The spontaneous spreading of thin liquid films under capillary forces alone is typically a slow process. An applied force—gravitational or centrifugal, or a surface shear stress—can be used to drive the spreading more quickly1,2. Recent experimental3,4 and theoretical5 studies have revealed that in all of these cases of forced spreading, the liquid front undergoes a fingering instability. Here we report another example of such unstable driven flow, this time caused by the Marangoni effect6, in which a temperature gradient induces a gradient of surface tension which drives the spreading process.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Tanner, L. H. La Recherche 17, 182–191 (1986).
Ludviksson, V. & Lightfoot, E. N. Am. Inst. Chem. Engrs J. 17, 1166–1173 (1971).
Huppert, H. E. Nature 300, 427–429 (1982).
Melo, F., Joanny, J. F. & Fauve, S. Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 1958–1961 (1989).
Troian, S. M., Herbolzheimer, E., Safran, S. A. & Joanny, J. F. Europhys. Lett. 10, 25–30 (1989).
Levich, V. G. & Krylov, V. S. A. Rev. Fluid Mech. 1, 293 (1969).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cazabat, A., Heslot, F., Troian, S. et al. Fingering instability of thin spreading films driven by temperature gradients. Nature 346, 824–826 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/346824a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/346824a0
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Dynamics of microflow at the plasma–liquid interface
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
Minimization of entropy production in the transient thermocapillary flow of \(Al_2O_3 - Cu\) hybrid nanoliquid film over a disk
Indian Journal of Physics (2022)
-
Non-associative phase separation in an evaporating droplet as a model for prebiotic compartmentalization
Nature Communications (2021)
-
Convective meniscus splitting of polysaccharide microparticles on various surfaces
Scientific Reports (2021)
-
Active Barrier Combining Fire-Resistant Fiberglass Fabric and Water Sprinkler System for Protection Against Forest Fires
Fire Technology (2021)