Interfacial Convection in Multilayer Systems

This book contains a systematic investigation of the convection in systems with interfaces. For the first time, it classifies all of the known types of convective instabilities in such systems, and discusses the peculiarities of multilayer systems. The book provides an overview of the wide variety of steady and oscillatory patterns, waves, and other dynamic phenomena characteristic for multilayer fluid systems. Various physical effects, including heat and mass transfer, thermal and mechanical couplings on the interfaces, interfacial deformability, the influence of surfactants on different types of convective motions are investigated.

The text will be useful for researchers and graduate students in fluid mechanics, nonlinear dynamics and applied mathematics as well as for physicists and chemical engineers interested in the investigation of the interfacial physico-chemical processes and in their applications.

• applied mathematics
• convection
• dynamics
• fluid mechanics
• mathematics
• nonlinear dynamics
• stability
• thin films
• waves
• partial differential equations
• fluid- and aerodynamics

From the reviews:

"This book gives a systematic investigation of convection in systems comprised of liquid layers with deformable interfaces. The equations and models are carefully developed. … The literature review of recent works is very timely. … This monograph pulls together the large amount of very recent theoretical and experimental works related to interfacial convection in multilayer systems and is a valuable contribution." (Yuriko Y. Renardy, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2007 a)

"The monograph integrates a large body of previous work on convection in infinitely extended and superposed plane layers of two and three immiscible liquids. … The monograph appears to be mostly comprehensive and provides a good guide to the specialized literature (611 references are given) to which the authors themselves have contributed significantly." (Hendrik Kuhlmann, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1100 (2), 2007)

"In this book, the authors present a compendium of results on thermocapillary flows and on flows with both buoyancy and thermocapillarity. … In summary, the bulk of this book is excellent and … more valuable resource for mathematicians, physicists and engineers working on the stability of thermocapillary flows." (John Billingham, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 581, 2007)

"This monograph presents the current state of the art in the understanding of a class of problems in the study of Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC). … I believe it will be warmly welcomed by physicists and engineers. It is a rich and thorough guide to the diverse and complex physical behaviors that occur in RBC problems. … This book will serve as a valuable reference for all researchers seeking to understand the nature and complexities of this class of problems." (Thomas P. Witelski, SIAM Review, Vol. 49 (2), 2007)

• Department of Mathematics, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

  A. Nepomnyashchy, I. Simanovskii

• Microgravity Research Centre, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, Bruxelles, Belgium

  J. C. Legros

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