Non-isothermal flow of a thin film of fluid with temperature-dependent viscosity on a stationary horizontal cylinder

A comprehensive description is obtained of the two-dimensional steady gravity-driven flow with prescribed volume flux of a thin film of Newtonian fluid with temperature-dependent viscosity on a stationary horizontal cylinder. When the cylinder is uniformly hotter than the surrounding atmosphere (positive thermoviscosity), the effect of increasing the heat transfer to the surrounding atmosphere at the free surface is to increase the average viscosity and hence reduce the average velocity within the film, with the net effect that the film thickness (and hence the total fluid load on the cylinder) is increased to maintain the fixed volume flux of fluid. When the cylinder is uniformly colder than the surrounding atmosphere (negative thermoviscosity), the opposite occurs. Increasing the heat transfer at the free surface from weak to strong changes the film thickness everywhere (and hence the load, but not the temperature or the velocity) by a constant factor which depends only on the specific viscosity model considered. The effect of increasing the thermoviscosity is always to increase the film thickness and hence the load. In the limit of strong positive thermoviscosity, the velocity is small and uniform outside a narrow boundary layer near the cylinder leading to a large film thickness, while in the limit of strong negative thermoviscosity, the velocity increases from zero at the cylinder to a large value at the free surface leading to a small film thickness. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3593393]