Past exam of the topics in fluid mechanics course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / 1 / a / iii

The two wall boundary conditions areDefine the capillary parameter for a falling filmRetain $S=O(1)$ in the long-wave approximation. Thus surface tension is retained in the leading normal stress balance even though geometric slope corrections are small. For $h_x=O(1)$ in the rescaled coordinates, the dimensional surface slope is $\epsilon h_x$.

The three free surface boundary conditions, accurate through $O(\epsilon )$, areThe first is the kinematic boundary condition; the second is the zero tangential traction condition. For the third, the dimensional liquid-side pressure is, to the required order,Division by $\rho g{h}_0\sin \alpha$ gives $p=-3S{h}_{xx}/2+\epsilon w_z$ in dimensionless variables. Subtracting $\bar{p}(h)=(1-h)\cot \alpha$ gives the stated perturbation condition. The additional slope-times-shear contribution to normal stress vanishes at this order because the tangential traction is zero. The omitted geometric and tangential-stress corrections are $O({\epsilon }^2)$ under this ordering.