2001/09/21 by Andrea L. Bertozzi, A L Bertozzi, Günther Grün +3 · 2 citations
Chemical Engineering · Engineering · Materials Science · #Fluid Dynamics and Thin Films #Rheology and Fluid Dynamics Studies #Solidification and crystal growth phenomena
paper · doi:10.1088/0951-7715/14/6/309
openalex publication_date 2001/09/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Under the influence of long-range attractive and short-range repulsive forces, thin liquid films rupture and form complex dewetting patterns. This paper studies this phenomenon in one space dimension within the framework of fourth-order degenerate parabolic equations of lubrication type. We derive the global structure of the bifurcation diagram for steady-state solutions. A stability analysis of the solution branches and numerical simulations suggest coarsening occurs. Furthermore, we study the behaviour of solutions in the limit that short-range repulsive forces are neglected. Both asymptotic analysis and numerical experiments show that this limit can concentrate mass in δ-distributions.