Homoclinic snaking in bounded domains

Homoclinic snaking is a term used to describe the back and forth oscillation of a branch of time-independent spatially localized states in a bistable, spatially reversible system as the localized structure grows in length by repeatedly adding rolls on either side. On the real line this process continues forever. In finite domains snaking terminates once the domain is filled but the details of how this occurs depend critically on the choice of boundary conditions. With periodic boundary conditions the snaking branches terminate on a branch of spatially periodic states. However, with non-Neumann boundary conditions they turn continuously into a large amplitude filling state that replaces the periodic state. This behavior, shown here in detail for the Swift-Hohenberg equation, explains the phenomenon of “snaking without bistability”, recently observed in simulations of binary fluid convection by Mercader, Batiste, Alonso and Knobloch (preprint)

Collapsed heteroclinic snaking near a heteroclinic chain in dragged meniscus problems

We study a liquid film that is deposited onto a flat plate that is inclined at a constant angle to the horizontal and is extracted from a liquid bath at a constant speed. We additionally assume that there is a constant temperature gradient along the plate that induces a Marangoni shear stress. We analyse steady-state solutions of a long-wave evolution equation for the film thickness. Using centre manifold theory, we first obtain an asymptotic expansion of solutions in the bath region. The presence of the temperature gradient significantly changes these expansions and leads to the presence of logarithmic terms that are absent otherwise. Next, we obtain numerical solutions of the steady-state equation and analyse the behaviour of the solutions as the plate velocity is changed. We observe that the bifurcation curve exhibits snaking behaviour when the plate inclination angle is beyond a certain critical value. Otherwise, the bifurcation curve is monotonic. The solutions along these curves are characterised by a foot-like structure that is formed close to the meniscus and is preceded by a thin precursor film further up the plate. The length of the foot increases along the bifurcation curve. Finally, we explain that the snaking behaviour of the bifurcation curves is caused by the existence of an infinite number of heteroclinic orbits close to a heteroclinic chain that connects in an appropriate three-dimensional phase space the fixed point corresponding to the precursor film with the fixed point corresponding to the foot and then with the fixed point corresponding to the bath.Comment: Final revised version. 18 pages. To be published in Eur. Phys. J.

Modelling of driven free surface liquid films

In several types of coating processes a solid substrate is removed at a controlled velocity U from a liquid bath. The shape of the liquid meniscus and the thickness of the coating layer depend on U. These dependencies have to be understood in detail for non-volatile liquids to control the deposition of such a liquid and to lay the basis for the control in more complicated cases (volatile pure liquid, solution with volatile solvent). We study the case of non-volatile liquids employing a precursor film model that describes partial wettability with a Derjaguin (or disjoining) pressure. In particular, we focus on the relation of the deposition of (i) an ultrathin precursor film at small velocities and (ii) a macroscopic film of thickness h ∝ U^(2/3) (corresponding to the classical Landau Levich film). Depending on the plate inclination, four regimes are found for the change from case (i) to (ii). The different regimes and the transitions between them are analysed employing numerical continuation of steady states and saddle-node bifurcations and simulations in time. We discuss the relation of our results to results obtained with a slip model. In connection with evaporative processes, we will study the pinning of a droplet due to a sharp corner. The approach employs an evolution equation for the height profile of an evaporating thin film (small contact angle droplet) on a substrate with a rounded edge, and enables one to predict the dependence of the apparent contact angle on the position of the contact line. The calculations confirm experimental observations, namely that there exists a dynamically produced critical angle for depinning that increases with the evaporation rate. This suggests that one may introduce a simple modification of the Gibbs criterion for pinning that accounts for the non-equilibrium effect of evaporation

Snaking of multiple homoclinic orbits in reversible systems

We study N-homoclinic orbits near a heteroclinic cycle in a reversible system. The cycle is assumed to connect two equilibria of saddle-focus type. Using Lin's method we establish the existence of infinitely many N-homoclinic orbits for each N near the cycle. In particular, these orbits exist along snaking curves, thus mirroring the behaviour one-homoclinic orbits. The general analysis is illustrated by numerical studies for a Swift-Hohenberg system