We show that a thin film with small dynamic contact angle and driven by an external body force is unstable to the formation of fingers in the direction perpendicular to the main flow. The instability is largest in the capillary region near the contact line, where the force due to surface tension is comparable to the viscous and gravitational forces. The fastest growing wavelength is calculated in the limit of small-amplitude disturbances. These instabilities may be related to finger patterns observed in gravitational flows and spinning drops.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.