Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/S01023/01
Title:	Thermocapillary instability of a thin liquid film heated from below
Principal Investigator:	Kalliadasis, Professor S
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Chemical Engineering
Organisation:	University of Leeds
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 January 2003	Ends:	30 June 2004	Value (£):	146,243
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Continuum Mechanics Fluid Dynamics
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Chemicals No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
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Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
In several cases, the motion of free-surface thin liquid films on planar substrates is largely influenced by the thermocapillary Marangoni effect caused by temperature gradients at the free-surface. In engineering heat and mass transport systems, for example, local overheating of the substrate can induce considerable temperature differences on the free-surface of the films. The resulting thermocapillary flows will cause the generation of waves and instabilities as well as the formation of vortex and reverse flows. The formation of these structures is an, indication of. poor design or less than optimal operating conditions, leading eventually to a significant drop in efficiency of the heat transport process. Hence, it is important that we understand the mechanisms surrounding the growth of these thermocapillary instabilities. The proposed research will undertake the theoretical analysis of free-surface thin film flows over heated planar substrates. In particular, we aim to develop improved models for the description of the evolution of the free-surface, assess the validity of these models by comparing their linear stability properties with Orr-Sommerfeld-type analyses of the full Navier-Stokes and to extend existing linear theories for thermocapillary instabilities to the nonlinear stage of these instabilities, which is typicality characterised by the development of three-dimensional surface waves (rivulets).
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