Laminar spread of a circular liquid jet impinging axially on a rotating disc

Abstract

The steady laminar annular spread of a thin liquid film generated by a circular jet which impinges perpendicularly in direction of gravity on the centre of a rotating disc is examined both analytically and numerically. Matched asymptotic expansions of the flow quantities provide the proper means for studying the individual flow regimes arising due to the largeness of the Reynolds number formed with the radius of the jet, its slenderness and the relative magnitude of the centrifugal body force. This is measured by a suitably defined Rossby number, $Ro$. The careful analysis of jet impingement predicts a marked influence of gravity and surface tension on the film flow, considered in the spirit of a shallow-water approach, only through the vorticity imposed by the jet flow. Accordingly, associated downstream conditions are disregarded as the local Froude and Weber numbers are taken to be sufficiently large. Hence, the parabolic problem shaped from the governing equations in a rigorous manner describes the strongly supercritical spread of a developed viscous film past an infinite disc, essentially controlled by $Ro$. Its numerical solutions are discussed for a wide range of values of $Ro$. The different flow regimes reflecting varying effects of viscous shear and centrifugal force are elucidated systematically to clarify the surprising richness of flow phenomena. Special attention is paid to the cases $Ro\gg 1$ and $Ro\ll 1$. The latter, referring to relatively high disc spin, implies a delicate breakdown of the asymptotic flow structure, thus requiring a specific analytical and numerical treatment. Finally, the impact of gravity and capillarity and thus of the disc edge on the film flow is envisaged in brief.