Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 333–336 (1990)Model for the fingering instability of spreading surfactant dropsReceived 26 October 1989; published in the issue dated 16 July 1990 We show that the Marangoni effect drives the fingering instability observed at the edge of an aqueous surfactant drop spreading on a thin film of water. A calculation of the unperturbed flow profile demonstrates that the spreading of the drop is controlled by the dynamics of a thin layer which develops in front of the drop. The surface-tension gradient in this region leads to the fingering instability via a mechanism mathematically similar to that in Hele-Shaw flow despite the very different underlying physics. © 1990 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.65.333
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.65.333
PACS:
47.20.Dr, 68.10.Gw, 68.15.+e
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