We investigate the dynamics of an insoluble surfactant on the surface of a thin viscous fluid spreading inward to fill a surfactant-free region. During the initial stages of surfactant self-healing, Marangoni forces drive an axisymmetric ridge inward to coalesce into a growing central distension; this is unlike outward spreading, in which the ridge only decays. In later dynamics, the distension slowly decays and the surfactant concentration equilibrates. We present results from experiments in which we simultaneously measure the surfactant concentration (using fluorescently tagged lipids) and the fluid height profile (via laser profilometry). We compare the results to simulations of a mathematical model using parameters from our experiments. For surfactant concentrations close to but below the critical monolayer concentration, we observe agreement between the height profiles in the numerical simulations and the experiment, but disagreement in the surfactant distribution. In experiments at lower concentrations, the surfactant spreading and formation of a Marangoni ridge are no longer present, and a persistent lipid-free region remains. This observation, which is not captured by the simulations, has undesirable implications for applications where uniform coverage is advantageous. Finally, we probe the generality of the effect, and find that distensions of similar size are produced independent of initial fluid thickness, size of initial clean region, and surfactant type.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
April 2014
Research Article|
April 28 2014
Self-healing dynamics of surfactant coatings on thin viscous films
Stephen L. Strickland;
Stephen L. Strickland
1Department of Physics,
NC State University
, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
Matthew Hin;
Matthew Hin
2Department of Mathematics,
Harvey Mudd College
, Claremont, California 91711, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
M. Richard Sayanagi;
M. Richard Sayanagi
3Department of Physics,
Harvey Mudd College
, Claremont, California 91711, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
Cameron Gaebler;
Cameron Gaebler
3Department of Physics,
Harvey Mudd College
, Claremont, California 91711, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
Karen E. Daniels;
Karen E. Daniels
1Department of Physics,
NC State University
, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
Rachel Levy
Rachel Levy
2Department of Mathematics,
Harvey Mudd College
, Claremont, California 91711, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
Physics of Fluids 26, 042109 (2014)
Article history
Received:
September 11 2013
Accepted:
April 03 2014
Citation
Stephen L. Strickland, Matthew Hin, M. Richard Sayanagi, Cameron Gaebler, Karen E. Daniels, Rachel Levy; Self-healing dynamics of surfactant coatings on thin viscous films. Physics of Fluids 1 April 2014; 26 (4): 042109. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4872020
Download citation file:
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Citing articles via
On Oreology, the fracture and flow of “milk's favorite cookie®”
Crystal E. Owens, Max R. Fan (范瑞), et al.
Physics-informed neural networks for solving Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations
Hamidreza Eivazi, Mojtaba Tahani, et al.
Chinese Academy of Science Journal Ranking System (2015–2023)
Cruz Y. Li (李雨桐), 李雨桐, et al.
Related Content
Shock wave induced vaporization of porous solids
J. Appl. Phys. (May 2003)