The flow of thin liquid films between rollers

Abstract

When rollers, placed horizontally and side by side so that each is half immersed in a tank of liquid, rotate in opposite directions, liquid is carried through the gap between them and divides to form a sheet over each roller. At low speeds the sheets are of uniform thickness across the width of the rollers, but at higher speeds they are regularly ridged owing to alternate increase and decrease in thickness. Preliminary observations led to the development of an approximate theoretical treatment of the even-flow régime and the critical conditions when the ribbed flow is about to begin. Results of this work are in full agreement with detailed experimental results.