2001/12/20 by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, de Gennes, Pierre-Gilles
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0112383
5 pages, 2 EPS figures. Submitted to Langmuir
arxiv created 2001/12/20 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
Certain (non polymeric) fluids show an anomalously low friction when flowing against well chosen solid walls. We discuss here one possible explanation, postulating that a gaseous film of small thickness h is present between fluid and wall. When h is smaller than the mean free path l of the gas (Knudsen regime) the Navier length b is expected to be independent of h and very large (microns).