Heteroclinic snaking near a heteroclinic chain in dragged meniscus problems

We study a liquid film that is deposited onto a flat plate that is inclined at a constant angle to the horizontal and is extracted from a liquid bath at a constant speed. We additionally assume that there is a constant temperature gradient along the plate that induces a Marangoni shear stress. We analyse steady-state solutions of a long-wave evolution equation for the film thickness. Using centre manifold theory, we first obtain an asymptotic expansion of solutions in the bath region. The presence of the temperature gradient significantly changes these expansions and leads to the presence of logarithmic terms that are absent otherwise. Next, we obtain numerical solutions of the steady-state equation and analyse the behaviour of the solutions as the plate velocity is changed. We observe that the bifurcation curve exhibits snaking behaviour when the plate inclination angle is beyond a certain critical value. Otherwise, the bifurcation curve is monotonic. The solutions along these curves are characterised by a foot-like structure that is formed close to the meniscus and is preceded by a thin precursor film further up the plate. The length of the foot increases along the bifurcation curve. Finally, we explain that the snaking behaviour of the bifurcation curves is caused by the existence of an infinite number of heteroclinic orbits close to a heteroclinic chain that connects in an appropriate three-dimensional phase space the fixed point corresponding to the precursor film with the fixed point corresponding to the foot and then with the fixed point corresponding to the bath.