Published June 20, 2007 | Version v1
Journal article

The shape of soap films and Plateau borders

  • 1. Departamento de Engenharia de Materiais and Instituto de Ciencia e Engenharia de Materiais e SuperfIcies, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Avenida Rovisco Pais, P-1049-001 Lisbon (Portugal)
  • 2. Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa Rua Conselheiro EmIdio Navarro 1, P-1950-062 Lisbon (Portugal)

Description

We have calculated the shapes of flat liquid films, and of the transition region to the associated Plateau borders (PBs), by integrating the Laplace equation with a position-dependent surface tension γ(x), where 2x is the local film thickness. We discuss films in either zero or non-zero gravity, using standard γ(x) potentials for the interaction between the two bounding surfaces. We have investigated the effects of the film flatness, liquid underpressure, and gravity on the shape of films and their PBs. Films may exhibit 'humps' and/or 'dips' associated with inflection points and minima of the film thickness. Finally, we propose an asymptotic analytical solution for the film width profile

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1088/0953-8984/19/24/246106;
PII
S0953-8984(07)37945-9;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter
Journal Volume
19
Journal Issue
24
Journal Page Range
p. 246106
ISSN
0953-8984
CODEN
JCOMEL