Nonlinear waves in a liquid film on a near-horizontal surface

Nonlinear waves in a liquid film on a slightly inclined rigid plane are studied. A mathematical model is reduced to a system of two evolutionary equations for the layer thickness and the local fluid mass flow. In addition to viscous forces, gravity, and surface tension, the pressure difference over the layer thickness, induced by the gravity force projection on the normal to the underlying surface, is also taken into account. Spatially periodic solutions developing with time from small initial disturbances into regular nonlinear waves are considered. A spectral representation of the solution, the Galerkin method with respect to the uniform coordinate, and subsequent numerical calculation of the corresponding dynamic system on large time intervals are employed. Different variants in the space of the three governing parameters are calculated and some basic mechanisms of nonlinear dynamics of the two-dimensional waves are detected. The calculation results are compared with the existing experimental data. It is shown that the theoretical conclusions can be used to interpret and predict experiments.