Revealing the dynamics of stagnant rings of third-grade fluid film with heat transfer in the presence of surface tension

In many engineering applications, including coating and lubrication operations, analyzing the temperature behavior of thin film flows on a vertically upward-moving tube is crucial to improving predictive models. This paper examines a steady third-grade fluid film flow with a surface tension gradient on a vertical tube. The mechanisms responsible for the fluid motion are upward tube motion, gravity, and surface tension gradient. This analysis focuses on heat transfer and stagnant ring dynamics. The formulated highly nonlinear ordinary differential equations are solved using the Adomian decomposition method. The conditions for stagnant rings and uniform film thickness are attained and discussed. The inverse capillary number C, Stokes number St, Deborah number De, and Brinkman number Br emerged as flow control parameters. The temperature of the fluid film rises with an increase in the C, St, De, and Br, whereas it decreases with an increase in thermal diffusion rate. The radius of stagnant rings tends to shrink by the increase in C, St, and De. When the value of De is high, third-grade fluid behaves like solids; only free drainage happens with smaller radius stagnant rings and high temperatures. A comparison between Newtonian and third-grade fluids regarding surface tension, velocity, temperature, stationary rings, and fluid film thickness is also provided.