PHYSICAL MATHEMATICS SEMINAR


TITLE:		THE HYDRODYNAMIC STABILITY AND CONTROL OF 
		THERMOCAPILLARY DRIVEN SPREADING ON 
		MICROPATTERNED SUBSTRATES

SPEAKER:	JEFF DAVIS
		Department of Chemical Engineering
		Princeton University


ABSTRACT: 

The recent focus on miniature devices has generated substantial interest in the dynamics of
thin liquid films.  Experiments have shown that spreading films can undergo a flow transition
from a uniform front at the advancing solid-liquid-vapor contact line to an array of parallel rivulets.
This talk will address this instability for the specific example of thermocapillary driven spreading. 
Because the relevant linearized disturbance operators for spatially inhomogeneous thin films are
non-normal, a non-modal, transient analysis is employed.  Results for several contact line models
will be presented.  This investigation of thermocapillary driven spreading has also been pursued in
the context of a novel microfluidic device based on flow confinement through substrate micropatterning.
The influence of the resulting lateral curvature of the fluid will be traced from an analog of the classical
dip-coating problem to other applications of current interest.

THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2003
2:30 PM
Building 4, Room 370

Refreshments will be served at 3:30 PM in Room 2-349


Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Mathematics
Cambridge, MA  02139