Liquid Film Instability on a Single Fiber

Abstract

Due to surface tension of a liquid, liquid films coating fibers or the inner surface of capillary tubes are unstable. They spontaneously break up into periodic array of droplets. Only very thin films can be stabilized by long-range van der Waals forces. This phenomenon is of big importance for textile materials, because they are being subjected to different kinds of liquids during various manufacturing and finishing processes where the stability of a liquid film is required. In this paper we present the simulation of liquid film instability using an Ising model combined with Monte Carlo computer simulation technique. The results of simulation are compared with the experimental ones.