Gravity-driven soap film dynamics in subcritical regimes

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2015 Oct;92(4):043009. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.92.043009. Epub 2015 Oct 9.

Abstract

We undertake the analysis of soap-film dynamics with the classical approach of asymptotic expansions. We focus our analysis in vertical soap film tunnels operating in subcritical regimes with elastic Mach numbers M(e)=O((10(-1))). Considering the associated set of nondimensional numbers that characterize this flow, we show that the flow behaves as a two-dimensional (2D) divergence free flow with variable mass density. When the soap film dynamics agrees with that of a 2D and almost constant mass density flow, the regions where the second invariant of the velocity gradient is non-null correspond to regions where the rate of change of film thickness is non-negligible.