Instabilities in Gravity Driven Flow of Thin Fluid Films

This paper presents theoretical, computational and experimental aspects of the instability development in the ow of thin uid lms. The theoretical part involves basic uid mechanics and presents derivation of the thin lm equation using lubrication approximation. Simpli ed version of this equation is then analyzed analytically using linear stability analysis, and also numerically. The results are then compared directly to experiments. The experimental part outlines the setup, as well as data acquisition and analysis. This immediate comparison to experiments is very useful for gaining better insight into interpretation of various theoretical and computational results.