SPONTANEOUS RUPTURE OF THIN LIQUID-FILMS DUE TO THERMOCAPILLARITY - AFULL-SCALE DIRECT NUMERICAL-SIMULATION

Rupture dynamics of a thin liquid film on a heated substrate has been studied by integrating the fully-coupled nonlinear system of continuit y, momentum, and energy equations. The system is solved using finite e lement method in an Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) frame of refer ence to update precisely the motion of the moving free-surface. The re sults of these simulations are compared with those from the long-wave theory. Fully nonlinear process of spontaneous rupture due to thermoca pillarity is shown for the first time. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.