Nonlinear dynamics of confined liquid systems with interfaces subject to forced vibrations

A review is presented of the dynamic behavior of confined fluid systems with interfaces under monochromatic mechanical forcing, emphasizing the associated spatio-temporal structure of the fluid response. At low viscosity, vibrations significantly affect dynamics and always produce viscous mean flows, which are coupled to the primary oscillating flow and evolve on a very slow timescale. Thus, unlike the primary oscillating flow, mean flows may easily interact with the surface rheology, which generates dynamics that usually exhibit a much slower timescale than that of typical gravity–capillary waves. The review is made with an eye to the typical experimental devices used to measure surface properties, which usually consist of periodically forced, symmetric fluid systems with interfaces. The current theoretical description of these systems ignores the fluid mechanics, which could play a larger role than presently assumed.