Numerical study of the relative equilibrium of a droplet with a simply connected free surface on a rotating plane

Abstract

The paper investigates the shapes of relative rest of limited layers of liquid on a rotating horizontal plane in the field of gravity in the presence of surface tension. The layers under consideration have a simply connected free surface and rotational symmetry with respect to the line of action of the angular velocity. The mathematical formulation of this problem is reduced to a system of first-order ordinary differential equations with boundary and integral closing conditions. A new algorithm for the numerical solution of the resulting system is proposed, the influence of various dimensionless parameters on the characteristics of equilibrium droplet shapes is studied, and criteria for the existence of such shapes are determined. The paper is of theoretical interest, since the problem under consideration is one of the fundamental ones in the research of capillary phenomena. The developed numerical scheme can also be applied in a wider class of differential equations. The results of the article can be used in practical tasks related to coating, fiber and powder production by the centrifugal-disk method.