This project is an experimental and modeling study of the flow of thin liquid films over complex, textured surfaces of the type suggested for use in ordered gas-liquid contactors. Such a surface might be a wire gauze or corrugated sheet. Attention will be directed at the influence of surface geometry, flow rate, and fluid properties on the formation and stability of dry patches. Modeling will attempt to relate fluid flow phenomena on the "microscopic" or gauze wire scale to the larger scale flows over the packing as a whole. Ordered packing offers some advantages over conventional random packings for gas-liquid contacting. The efficiency of contacting is determined in part by the liquid flow patterns.
