Instability of laminar flows due to a film of adsorption

Abstract

When a horizontal layer of viscous liquid with an adsorption film of varying concentration as its upper boundary is set in motion by a steady translation of its lower boundary, plane Couette flow with zero surface velocity is possible. In this paper the stability of this flow is considered, and it is found that the liquid layer can be unstable for long waves. The instability found for this flow, however, exists also for other laminar flows with an adsorbed film, and plane Couette flow has been chosen only as a simple means of demonstration.