Qualitative Analysis of Coating Flows on a Rotating Horizontal Cylinder

Abstract

We consider a nonlinear 4th-order degenerate parabolic partial differential equation that arises in modelling the dynamics of an incompressible thin liquid film on the outer surface of a rotating horizontal cylinder in the presence of gravity. The parameters involved determine a rich variety of qualitatively different flows. We obtain sufficient conditions for finite speed of support propagation and for waiting time phenomena by application of a new extension of Stampacchia's lemma for a system of functional equations.