Stability and nonlinear dynamics of three-layer viscous films inside a vertical cylindrical tube

We investigate the dynamics and stability of three immiscible viscous liquid layers coating the interior of a vertical cylindrical tube, a configuration relevant to stratified core–annular transport processes. A long-wave asymptotic analysis yields a coupled system of nonlinear evolution equations governing the motion of the three interfaces. Linear stability analysis predicts a persistent long-wave instability, the capillary (Rayleigh–Plateau) instability of the air–core interface, together with secondary finite-wavenumber instability bands that emerge from interfacial coupling in certain parameter regimes. These stability characteristics depend sensitively on the layer thicknesses, viscosity ratios, and surface tension parameters, and include mode-switching associated with competing maxima in the dispersion relation. Nonlinear simulations reveal three distinct dynamical outcomes: saturation to finite-amplitude travelling waves, air-core closure through plug formation, and rupture of the intermediate liquid layer while the air core remains open. The intermediate-layer rupture mechanism is unique to the three-layer configuration which has no analogue in one- or two-interface cylindrical film flows. Numerical continuation is used to compute branches of travelling-wave solutions and their associated limit points. Comparison with time-dependent simulations shows that travelling-wave branches successfully predict the transition from saturated waves to plug formation, but do not capture the distinct rupture mechanism associated with collapse of the intermediate layer.