On the self-similarity of unbounded viscous Marangoni flows

The Marangoni flow induced by an insoluble surfactant on a fluid–fluid interface is a fundamental problem investigated extensively due to its implications in colloid science, biology, the environment and industrial applications. Here, we study the limit of a deep liquid subphase with negligible inertia (low Reynolds number, $Re\ll {1}$), where the two-dimensional problem has been shown to be described by the complex Burgers equation. We analyse the problem through a self-similar formulation, providing further insights into its structure and revealing its universal features. Six different similarity solutions are found. One of the solutions includes surfactant diffusion, whereas the other five, which are identified through a phase-plane formalism, hold only in the limit of negligible diffusion (high surface Péclet number $Pe_s\gg {1}$). Surfactant ‘pulses’, with a locally higher concentration that spreads outward, lead to two similarity solutions of the first kind with a similarity exponent $\beta =1/2$. On the other hand, distributions that are locally depleted and flow inwards lead to similarity of the second kind, with two different exponents that we obtain exactly using stability arguments. We distinguish between ‘dimple’ solutions, where the surfactant has a quadratic minimum and $\beta =2$, from ‘hole’ solutions, where the concentration profile is flatter than quadratic and $\beta =3/2$. Each of these two cases exhibits two similarity solutions, one valid prior to a critical time $t_*$ when the derivative of the concentration is singular, and another one valid after $t_*$. We obtain all six solutions in closed form, and discuss predictions that can be extracted from these results.