Retardation of Plateau-Rayleigh Instability: A Distinguishing Characteristic Among Perfectly Wetting Fluids

Abstract

We consider a cylindrical film of fluid adhering to a rigid cylinder of fixed radius. The main result is to give the critical (maximum) length for which such a film of given thickness can be stable. The problem is considered both when the cylinder remains stationary and when the fluid and the cylinder are co-rotating at a fixed angular velocity.