Deformation of a tensile membrane adjacent to a moving wall caused by viscous flow

Theoretical analysis is done for deformation of a tensile membrane caused b y viscous flow between the membrane and a solid boundary (wafer) placed adj acent to the membrane. The membrane and its support are assumed to have cir cular shapes. The boundary is assumed to move perpendicularly to the membra ne by a small fraction of the gap width. The Hele-Shaw flow theory is appli ed to the flow. Variation of the central gap width is obtained, and it is s hown that the maximum membrane deformation depends on the membrane tension and the final gap width. The dependence agrees with experimental results. ( C) 2000 The Japan Society of Fluid Mechanics and Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.