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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Numerical Simulations Of Thin Viscoelastic Films, Valeria Barra
Numerical Simulations Of Thin Viscoelastic Films, Valeria Barra
Dissertations
This dissertation is developed in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and it focuses on numerical simulations of the dynamics of thin viscoelastic films in different settings. The first part of this dissertation presents a novel computational investigation of thin viscoelastic films and drops, that are subject to the van der Waals interaction force, in two spatial dimensions. The liquid films are deposited on a flat solid substrate, that can have a zero or nonzero inclination with respect to the base. The equation that governs the interfacial dynamics of the thin films and drops is obtained within the long-wave …
Instabilities In Nematic Liquid Crystal Films And Droplets, Michael-Angelo Y.-H. Lam
Instabilities In Nematic Liquid Crystal Films And Droplets, Michael-Angelo Y.-H. Lam
Dissertations
The dynamics of thin films of nematic liquid crystal (NLC) are studied. Nematic liquid crystals are a type of non-Newtonian fluid with anisotropic viscous effects (due to the shape of the molecules) and elasticity effects (due to interacting electrical dipole moments). Exploiting the small aspect ratio in the geometry of interest, a fourth-order non-linear partial differential equation is used to model the free surface of the thin films. Particular attention is paid to the interplay between the bulk elasticity and the preferred orientation (boundary condition) of NLC molecules at the two interfaces: the substrate and the free surface. This work …