Controlled topological transitions in thin-film phase separation

DOI10.1137/130950227zbMATH Open1320.35070arXiv1402.6890OpenAlexW2963873430MaRDI QIDQ5265009FDOQ5265009

Authors: Matthew G. Hennessy, Victor M. Burlakov, Barbara Wagner, Alain Goriely, Andreas Münch 

Publication date: 21 July 2015

Published in: SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In this paper the evolution of a binary mixture in a thin-film geometry with a wall at the top and bottom is considered. By bringing the mixture into its miscibility gap so that no spinodal decomposition occurs in the bulk, a slight energetic bias of the walls towards each one of the constituents ensures the nucleation of thin boundary layers that grow until the constituents have moved into one of the two layers. These layers are separated by an interfacial region where the composition changes rapidly. Conditions that ensure the separation into two layers with a thin interfacial region are investigated based on a phase-field model. Using matched asymptotic expansions a corresponding sharp-interface problem for the location of the interface is established. It is then argued that this newly created two-layer system is not at its energetic minimum but destabilizes into a controlled self-replicating pattern of trapezoidal vertical stripes by minimizing the interfacial energy between the phases while conserving their area. A quantitative analysis of this mechanism is carried out via a thin-film model for the free interfaces, which is derived asymptotically from the sharp-interface model.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1402.6890

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zbMATH Keywords

matched asymptotic expansionstopological transformationscontrolled self-replicating patternphase separation in confined geometrysharp-interface asymptotics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Asymptotic behavior of solutions to PDEs (35B40) Interfacial stability and instability in hydrodynamic stability (76E17) Asymptotic methods, singular perturbations applied to problems in fluid mechanics (76M45)

Cited In (2)

• An anisotropic phase-field model for solid-state dewetting and its sharp-interface limit
• Topological transitions in evaporating thin films

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