Laminar film flow on a cylindrical surface

Abstract

The paper deals with steady laminar film flow which is set up at the cylindrical surface of an idealized horizontal ‘road’ when homogeneous ‘rain’ is falling onto the road in a vertical downward direction. It is shown that a particular solution of the Navier-Stokes equations is possible for which the depth of the liquid film is constant. In that case the Navier-Stokes equations reduce to the equations governing plane stagnation-point flow. However, the boundary conditions differ from those for the classical stagnation-point problem. Solutions for nearly inviscid flow and predominantly viscous flow are derived analytically. In particular, simple formulae for the depth of the film are found in both cases. Finally, the importance of the particular solution as a member of a whole class of solutions is discussed on the basis of a momentum integral approximation.