Bursting dynamics of thin free liquid films from Newtonian and viscoelastic solutions

The rupture velocity of a liquid film is usually obtained from an energy balance: Energy of the disappearing surface is transformed into kinetic energy of a moving rim, and dissipated due to the inelastic impact of this rim with a resting part of he film. This gives nu = (2 gamma/rho h)(1/2) where h is the film thickness, rho is the liquid density, and gamma is the surface tension. While thick films obey this behavior, thinner films can deviate remarkably: The velocity is drastically decelerated. This follows from the model developed, which accounts for elasticity when the thickness of a film becomes commensurate with (or smaller than) the mesh size, reflecting an enhanced structure.