Dynamique non-linéaire d'instabilités de surface : gouttes et colonnes liquides formées par ruissellement de films

The destabilization of a thin film by gravity is of central importance in many industrial devices, especially those involved in Thermics (film boiling, heat exchangers). In the simplest case of a liquid film hanging below a solid ceiling, spatial structures are forced by the destabilizing action of gravity (Rayleigh-Taylor instability): one observes regular lattices of pendant drops, that in turn become instable by coalescences and falling of the drops. When the film is supplied with liquid at a constant rate, other flow regimes are observed: periodic emission of drops, formation of regular arrays of liquid columns, liquid sheet. Liquid columns exhibit a collective dynamics that is typical of non-linear systems: modulations of their spatial periodicity, diffusion of the perturbations, self-sustained oscillations, propagation of solitary dilation waves, coalescences and nucleations of the columns, etc.