Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 September 2013
Reduced ordinary differential equation (ODE) models arising from a high-order lubrication system and describing coarsening dynamics of droplets in nanometric polymer film interacting on a hydrophobically coated solid substrate in the presence of large slippage at the liquid/solid interface are analysed. In the limiting case of infinite slip length corresponding in applications to free films, a collision/absorption model then arises and is solved explicitly. The exact coarsening law is derived for it analytically and confirmed numerically. Existence of a threshold for the decay of initial distributions of droplet distances at infinity at which the coarsening rates switch from algebraic to exponential ones is shown.