Flow separation in falling liquid films

The subject of this matter is flow separation in the capillary wave region of falling liquid films. The discovery of this hitherto unknown phenomenon as well as the elucidation of its governing dynamics represent a basis for the unifying explanation of several as yet unexplained empirical observations in falling liquid films. Further, they constitute a valuable input for the development of wave dynamics models. The study is based on highly resolving experimental and numerical investigations of 2-dimensional laminar falling liquid films with externally excited monochromatic surface waves. In addition, one 3-dimensional numerical simulation was also performed.