On slip effect in free coating of non-Newtonian fluids

Abstract

The failure of the current theories to predict the coating thickness of non-Newtonian fluids in free coating operations is shown to be a result of the effective slip at the moving rigid surface being coated. This slip phenomenon is a consequence of stress induced diffusion occurring in flow of structured liquids in non-homogeneous flow fields. Literature data have been analysed to substantiate the slip hypothesis proposed in this work. The experimentally observed coating thickness is shown to lie between an upper bound, which is estimated by a no-slip condition for homogeneous solution and a lower bound, which is estimated by using solvent properties. Some design considerations have been provided, which will serve as useful guidelines for estimating coating thickness in industrial practice.