Nonlinear Rupture of Thin Liquid Films on Solid Surfaces

In this Letter we investigate the rupture instability of thin liquid films by means of a bifurcation analysis in the vicinity of the short-scale instability threshold. The rupture time estimate obtained in closed form as a function of the relevant dimensionless groups is in striking agreement with the results of the numerical simulations of the original nonlinear evolution equations. This suggests that the weakly nonlinear theory captures the adequate physics of the instability. When antagonistic (attractive/repulsive) molecular forces are considered, nonlinear saturation of the instability becomes possible. We show that the stability boundaries are determined by the van der Waals potential alone.