Interfacial phase change effects on the stability characteristics of thin viscoelastic liquid film down a vertical wall

Weakly nonlinear stability analysis of thin viscoelastic liquid film flowing down a vertical wall including the phase change effects at the interface has been investigated. A normal mode approach and the method of multiple scales are employed to carry out the linear stability solution and the nonlinear stability solution for the film flow system. The results show that both the supercritical stability and subcritical instability are possible for condensate, evaporating and isothermal viscoelastic film flow system. The stability characteristics of the viscoelastic film flow are strongly influenced by the phase change parameter. The condensate (evaporating) viscoelastic film is more stable (unstable) than the isothermal viscoelastic film and the effect of viscoelasticity is to destabilize the film flowing down a vertical wall. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.