A mechanism for linear instability in two-dimensional rimming flow

In rimming flow, a thin film of viscous liquid coats the inside of a cylinder whose axis is horizontal and which is rotating with constant angular velocity. It has been established experimentally that such flows are often unstable with a variety of secondary flow regimes having been observed experimentally [15]. We use a lubrication approximation extended to the first order in the dimensionless film thickness (including the small effects of the variation of the film pressure across its thickness and the surface tension) and study the stability of the steady solutions to two-dimensional disturbances. The modified evolution equation is found to have both asymptotically stable and unstable solutions arising from the pressure terms. Surface tension effects place a restriction on the critical wave number when instability occurs: in many cases, surface tension prevents instability.