The Effect of Electromagnetic Retardation on the Rupture Process of a Very Thin Liquid Film

Effects of electromagnetic retardation on the rupture process of a very thin liquid film coated on a flat plate are studied. The analysis results indicate that the electromagnetic retardation effect (D) for the case A > 0 (attraction) is a stabilization factor, which prolongs the rupture time. The wavenumber of the most unstable mode is decreasing as D increases. It is also found that the linear solution of rupture time T(LM) is larger than the nonlinear rupture time T(NM), but the gradient of T(LM) to D is comparable to that of T(NM). Copyright 1999 Academic Press.