Steady, viscous, free-surface flow on a rotating cylinder

Abstract

The commonly observed phenomenon of steady, viscous, free-surface flow on the outer surface of a rotating cylinder is investigated by means of an iterative, integral-equation formulation applied to the Stokes approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations. The method of solution places no restriction on the thickness of the fluid layer residing on the cylinder surface; indeed, results are presented for cases where the layer thickness is of the same order of magnitude as the cylinder radius. Free-surface profiles and free-surface velocity distributions are presented for a range of flow parameters. Where appropriate, comparisons are made with the results of thinfilm theory; excellent agreement is observed. For all film thicknesses and surface tensions, results show a high degree of symmetry about a horizontal axis even though the gravity field is vertical. A proof is presented that, for vanishing surface tension, this is a consequence of the Stokes approximation.