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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Asymptotics for the spectrum of a thin film equation in a singular limit
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2010) Kitavtsev, Georgy; Recke, Lutz; Wagner, Barbara
    In this paper the linear stability properties of the steady states of a no-slip lubrication equation are studied. The steady states are configurations of droplets and arise during the late-phase dewetting process under the influence of both destabilizing van der Waals and stabilizing Born intermolecular forces, which in turn give rise to the minimum thickness eps of the remaining film connecting the droplets. The goal of this paper is to give an asymptotic description of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the problem, linearized about the one-droplet solutions, as epsto 0. For this purpose, corresponding asymptotic eigenvalue problems with piecewise constant coefficients are constructed, such that their eigenvalue asymptotics can be determined analytically. A comparison with numerically computed eigenvalues and eigenfunctions shows good agreement with the asymptotic results and the existence of a spectrum gap to a single exponentially small eigenvalue for sufficiently small eps.
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    Spin coating of an evaporating polymer solution
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2010) Münch, Andreas; Please, Colin P.; Wagner, Barbara
    We consider a mathematical model of spin coating of a single polymer blended in a solvent. The model describes the one-dimensional development of the thin layer of the mixture as the layer thins due to flow created by a balance of viscous forces and centrifugal forces and due to evaporation of the solvent. In the model both the diffusivity of the solvent in the polymer and the viscosity of the mixture are very rapidly varying functions of the solvent volume fraction. Guided by numerical solutions an asymptotic analysis reveals a number of different possible behaviours of the thinning layer dependent on the nondimensional parameters describing the system. The main practical interest is in controlling the appearance and development of a ``skin'' on the polymer where the solvent concentration reduces rapidly on the outer surface leaving the bulk of the layer still with high concentrations of solvent. The critical parameters controlling this behaviour are found to be eps the ratio of the diffusion to advection time scales, delta the ratio of the evaporation to advection time scales and exp(-gamma), the ratio of the diffusivity of the initial mixture and the pure polymer. In particular, our analysis shows that for very small evaporation with delta ll exp(-3/(4gamma)) eps^3/4 skin formation can be prevented
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    Surface induced phase separation of a swelling hydrogel
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2018) Hennessy, Matthew G.; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, Barbara
    We present a formulation of the free boundary problem for a hydrogel that accounts for the interfacial free energy and finite strain due to the large deformation of the polymer network during solvent transport across the free boundary. For the geometry of an initially dry layer fixed at a rigid substrate, our model predicts a phase transition when a critical value of the solvent concentration has been reached near the free boundary. A one-dimensional case study shows that depending on the flux rate at the free boundary an initial saturation front is followed by spinodal decomposition of the hydrogel and the formation of an interfacial front that moves through the layer. Moreover, increasing the shear modulus of the elastic network delays or even suppresses phase separation.
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    Thin film models for an active gel
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2017) Kitavtsev, Georgy; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, Barbara
    In this study we present a free-boundary problem for an active liquid crystal based on the Beris-Edwards theory that uses a tensorial order parameter and includes active contributions to the stress tensor to analyse the rich defect structure observed in applications such as the Adenosinetriphosphate (ATP) driven motion of a thin film of an actin filament network. The small aspect ratio of the film geometry allows for an asymptotic approximation of the free-boundary problem in the limit of weak elasticity of the network and strong active terms. The new thin film model captures the defect dynamics in the bulk as well as wall defects and thus presents a significant extension of previous models based on the Leslie-Erickson-Parodi theory. Analytic expressions are derived that reveal the interplay of anchoring conditions, film thickness and active terms and their control of transitions of flow structure.