Wave evolution on a falling film is a classical hydrodynamic instability whose rich wave dynamics have been carefully recorded in the last fifty years. Such waves are known to profoundly affect the mass and heat transfer of multi-phase industrial units.This book describes the collective effort of both authors and their students in constructing a comprehensive theory to describe the complex wave evolution from nearly harmonic waves at the inlet to complex spatio-temporal patterns involving solitary waves downstream. The mathematical theory represents a significant breakthrough from classical linear stability theories, which can only describe the inlet harmonic waves and also extends classical soliton theory for integrable systems to real solitrary wave dynamics with dissipation. One unique feature of falling-film solitary wave dynamics, which drives much of the spatio-temporal wave evolution, is the irreversible coalescence of such localized wave structures. It represents the first full description of a hydrodynamic instability from inception to developed chaos. This approach should prove useful for other complex hydrodynamic instabilities and would allow industrial engineers to better design their multi-phase apparati by exploiting the deciphered wave dynamics. This publication gives a comprehensive review of all experimental records and existing theories and significantly advances state of the art on the subject and are complimented by complex and attractive graphics from computational fluid mechanics.

A discussion of the fundamental changes that occur when dynamical systems from the fields of nonlinear optics, solids, hydrodynamics and biophysics are scaled down to nanosize. The authors are leading scientists in the field and each of their contributions provides a broader introduction to the specific area of research. In so doing, they include both the experimental and theoretical point of view, focusing especially on the effects on the nonlinear dynamical behavior of scaling, stochasticity and quantum mechanics. For everybody working on the synthesis and integration of nanoscopic devices who sooner or later will have to learn how to deal with nonlinear effects.

This book is a treatise on the thermodynamic and dynamic properties of thin liquid films at solid surfaces and, in particular, their rupture instabilities. For the quantitative study of these phenomena, polymer thin films (sometimes referred to as “ultrathin”) have proven to be an invaluable experimental model system. What is it that makes thin film instabilities special and interesting? First, thin polymeric films have an important range of applications. An understanding of their instabilities is therefore of practical relevance for the design of such films. The first chapter of the book intends to give a snapshot of current applications, and an outlook on promising future ones. Second, thin liquid films are an interdisciplinary research topic, which leads to a fairly heterogeneous community working on the topic. It justifies attempting to write a text which gives a coherent presentation of the field which researchers across their specialized communities might be interested in. Finally, thin liquid films are an interesting laboratory for a theorist to confront a well-established theory, hydrodynamics, with its limits. Thin films are therefore a field in which a highly fruitful exchange and collaboration exists between experimentalists and theorists. The book stretches from the more concrete to more abstract levels of study: we roughly progress from applications via theory and experiment to rigorous mathematical theory. For an experimental scientist, the book should serve as a reference and guide to what is the current consensus of the theoretical underpinnings of the field of thin film dynamics. Controversial problems on which such a consensus has not yet been reached are clearly indicated in the text, as well as discussed in a final chapter. From a theoretical point of view, the field of dewetting has mainly been treated in a mathematically ‘light’ yet elegant fashion, often making use of scaling arguments. For the untrained researcher, this approach is not always easy to follow. The present book attempts to bridge between the ‘light’ and the ‘rigorous’, always with the ambition to enhance insight and understanding - and to not let go the elegance of the theory.

Exact Solutions and Invariant Subspaces of Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations in Mechanics and Physics is the first book to provide a systematic construction of exact solutions via linear invariant subspaces for nonlinear differential operators. Acting as a guide to nonlinear evolution equations and models from physics and mechanics, the book

The revolution is well underway. Our understanding and utilization of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are growing at an explosive rate with a worldwide market approaching billions of dollars. In time, microdevices will fill the niches of our lives as pervasively as electronics do right now. But if these miniature devices are to fulfill their mammoth potential, today's engineers need a thorough grounding in the underlying physics, modeling techniques, fabrication methods, and materials of MEMS. The MEMS Handbook delivers all of this and more. Its team of authors-unsurpassed in their experience and standing in the scientific community- explore various aspects of MEMS: their design, fabrication, and applications as well as the physical modeling of their operations. Designed for maximum readability without compromising rigor, it provides a current and essential overview of this fledgling discipline.