Slip-enhanced Rayleigh-Plateau instability of a liquid film on a fibre

Boundary conditions at a liquid-solid interface are crucial to dynamics of a liquid film coated on a fibre. Here, a theoretical framework based on axisymmetric Stokes equations is developed to explore the influence of liquid-solid slip on the Rayleigh-Plateau instability of a cylindrical film on a fibre. The new model not only shows that the slip-enhanced growth rate of perturbations is overestimated by the classical lubrication model, but also indicates a slip-dependent dominant wavelength, instead of a constant value obtained by the lubrication method, which leads to larger drops formed on a more slippery fibre. The theoretical findings are validated by direct numerical simulations of Navier-Stokes equations via a volume-of-fluid method. Additionally, the slip-dependent dominant wavelengths predicted by our model agree with the experimental results provided by Haefner et al. (Nat. Commun., vol. 6, issue 1, 2015, 7409).

Automated summary

Boundary conditions at the liquid-solid interface play a crucial role in the dynamics of a liquid film on a fiber. This study develops a theoretical framework based on axisymmetric Stokes equations to investigate the influence of liquid-solid slip on the Rayleigh-Plateau instability of a cylindrical film. The new model reveals that the growth rate of perturbations is overestimated by the classical lubrication model and predicts a slip-dependent dominant wavelength, leading to larger drops on a more slippery fiber. The findings are validated through direct numerical simulations and agree with experimental results.