{
  "id": "2308.01774",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2023-08-03T14:06:17.000Z",
  "updated": "2023-08-03T14:06:17.000Z",
  "title": "Coalescence of elastic blisters filled with a viscous fluid",
  "authors": [
    "Torstein Sæter",
    "Christian Pedersen",
    "Jacco H. Snoeijer",
    "Thomas Salez",
    "Andreas Carlson"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "physics.flu-dyn"
  ],
  "abstract": "Pockets of viscous fluid coalescing beneath an elastic plate are encountered in a wide range of natural phenomena and engineering processes, spanning across scales. As the pockets merge, a bridge is formed with a height increasing as the plate relaxes. We study the spatiotemporal dynamics of such an elasto-hydrodynamic coalescence process by combining experiments, lubrication theory and numerical simulations. The bridge height exhibits an exponential growth with time, which corresponds to a self-similar solution of the bending-driven thin-film equation. We address this unique self-similarity and the self-similar shape of the bridge, both of which are corroborated in numerical simulations and experiments.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2023-08-03T14:06:17.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "viscous fluid",
      "elastic blisters",
      "elasto-hydrodynamic coalescence process",
      "bending-driven thin-film equation",
      "numerical simulations"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 0,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}