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Capillary levelling of immiscible bilayer films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Vincent Bertin Open the ORCID record for Vincent Bertin [Opens in a new window] ,
Carmen L. Lee Open the ORCID record for Carmen L. Lee [Opens in a new window] ,
Thomas Salez Open the ORCID record for Thomas Salez [Opens in a new window] ,
Elie Raphaël Open the ORCID record for Elie Raphaël [Opens in a new window]  and
Kari Dalnoki-Veress Open the ORCID record for Kari Dalnoki-Veress [Opens in a new window]
Vincent Bertin
Affiliation:
Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, LOMA, UMR 5798, 33405Talence, France UMR CNRS Gulliver 7083, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, 75005Paris, France
Carmen L. Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ONL8S 4M1, Canada
Thomas Salez
Affiliation:
Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, LOMA, UMR 5798, 33405Talence, France Global Station for Soft Matter, Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
Elie Raphaël
Affiliation:
UMR CNRS Gulliver 7083, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, 75005Paris, France
Kari Dalnoki-Veress*
Affiliation:
Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, LOMA, UMR 5798, 33405Talence, France Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ONL8S 4M1, Canada
*
†Email address for correspondence: dalnoki@mcmaster.ca
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Abstract

Flow in thin films is highly dependent on the boundary conditions. Here, we study the capillary levelling of thin bilayer films composed of two immiscible liquids. Specifically, a stepped polymer layer is placed atop another, flat polymer layer. The Laplace pressure gradient resulting from the curvature of the step induces flow in both layers, which dissipates the excess capillary energy stored in the stepped interface. The effect of different viscosity ratios between the bottom and top layers is investigated. We invoke a long-wave expansion of the low-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics to model the energy dissipation due to the coupled viscous flows in the two layers. Good agreement is found between the experiments and the model. Analysis of the latter further reveals an interesting double cross-over in time, from Poiseuille flow, to plug flow and finally to Couette flow. The cross-over time scales depend on the viscosity ratio between the two liquids, allowing for the dissipation mechanisms to be selected and finely tuned by varying this ratio.

JFM classification

Interfacial Flows (free surface): Capillary flows Interfacial Flows (free surface): Thin films
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 911 , 25 March 2021 , A13
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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