Linear stability

- ANR project with G. Dietze, N. Grenier, S. Mergui, Y. Li and Air Liquide (G. Mougin) -

Gas-liquid interfacial waves can have an opposite effect: intensify the transfer coefficients (suitable for the chemical process industry) or destroy the flow pattern (unwanted in coating and painting industry).

By means of the Orr-Sommerfeld equations, we study the linear stability of thin films with aerostatic and counter-current gas flow in strong confined geometries, in order to identify the regions of growth/attenuation of the interfacial waves.

Main findings: the Kapitza instability can be fully suppressed by confining the gas phase (see image below), and this is confirmed by our experiments.

Related publications

G. Lavalle, Y. Li, S. Mergui, N. Grenier, G. Dietze, ''Suppression of the Kapitza instability in confined falling liquid films'', Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 860, 608-639, 2019.