Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2003 / iii / Paper 73 / 3

Let $z$ measure height above the substrate, and write $\mu =\rho \nu$. In the lubrication approximation, the horizontal scale $\ell$ is much larger than the typical height $H_0$. Vertical momentum balance is hydrostatic to leading order, while the horizontal balance retains the dominant vertical shear:The no-slip boundary condition gives $u(0)=0$; negligible air viscosity and constant surface tension give $u_z(h)=0$. Integrating twice and then through the depth yieldsThe free-surface kinematic boundary condition and incompressibility imply $h_t+q_x=0$. ThereforeThe cross-sectional area $A=\int hdx$ is conserved when the endpoint volume flux vanishes.

The relevant small groups follow from the same balances. Put ${ϵ}_h=H_0/\ell$ and $U_{\ast }=g{H}_0^3/(3\nu \ell )$. Small ${ϵ}_h$ suppresses horizontal viscous derivatives and makes vertical viscous corrections to hydrostatic pressure smaller by $O({ϵ}_h^2)$. The ratio of horizontal inertia to vertical viscous stress isThus a small full-length Reynolds number is sufficient but not necessary: thin-layer geometry reduces the inertial ratio. The unsteady viscous ratio $H_0^2/(\nu t_{\ast })$ must likewise be small; on the spreading timescale $t_{\ast }=\ell /U_{\ast }$ it equals the displayed group. If surface tension is retained, its pressure-gradient correction relative to gravity isThe Bond number here uses the horizontal scale, because the capillary pressure is $O(\gamma H_0/{\ell }^2)$ whereas the hydrostatic pressure is $O(\rho g{H}_0)$. We also neglect air shear and evaporation and assume a Newtonian fluid with constant kinematic viscosity.

To find the similarity solution, put $K=g/(3\nu )$. Conservation of $A$ gives $h\sim A/\ell$, and balancing the time derivative against the nonlinear diffusion gives ${\ell }^5\sim K{A}^{3}t$. A normalized ansatz isSubstitution gives $(f^3{f}^{\prime }{)}^{\prime }=-(f+\xi f^{\prime })/5$. For the symmetric zero-flux profile, one integration gives $f^3{f}^{\prime }=-\xi f/5$, and on its positive support a second integration givesThus the solution is a compactly supported Barenblatt solution of the porous medium equation. Let $\ell (t)$ denote its half-width. In dimensional variables,Here the positive-part notation sets the height to zero outside $|x-x_c|<\ell$. The area normalization fixes the coefficient, not merely the exponent. With $x-x_c=\ell \sin \theta$,Writing the remaining integral as $I$, the final widths areThe height falls like $t^{-1/5}$ and the width grows like $t^{1/5}$. The volume flux tends to zero at the front, even though the profile slope diverges; this gives a valid compactly supported weak solution of the reduced equation. The diverging edge slope means the lubrication approximation is not uniform at a microscopic contact line. Surface-tension or contact-line physics supplies an inner regularization without changing the gravity-dominated bulk similarity law in its validity regime. This is an exact source-type solution for $t>0$; an arbitrary finite initial drop approaches an appropriate late-time profile rather than being exactly represented by this singular initial profile.