Dewetting processes in a cylindrical geometry.

Dewetting of liquid films of water-glycerol solutions of different viscosities has been studied experimentally in PVC cylindrical tubes. In contrast with plane surfaces, the dewetting capillary number Ca(vd) increases with the film thickness ho over a large part of the experimental range and follows a same global trend independent of viscosity as a function of ho. This increase is only partly explained by variations of the capillary driving force predicted in a recent theoretical work for a cylindrical geometry. An additional explanation is suggested, based on different spatial distributions of the viscous dissipation in the dewetting bump in the planar and cylindrical geometries. This mechanism is investigated for films of different thicknesses in a numerical model assuming a polynomial variation of the liquid thickness with distance in the bump region.