Stability and pattern formation of a two-layer liquid system with large aspect ratio subjected to vertical harmonic oscillations is studied by means of an integrated boundary layer model. The lower layer rests on an oscillating solid substrate, the upper layer is separated by a deformable interface from the lower layer and bounded at the top with a second, free interface to the ambient passive air. The model is derived from the Navier-Stokes equations in long-wave approximation, including inertial terms. Applying a Floquet analysis, linear stability charts and dispersion relations are computed and compared with results from the full linearized Navier-Stokes equations and the long-wave approximation. Nonlinear Faraday patterns simultaneously occurring at the interface and at the film surface are studied by numerically solving the integrated boundary layer model in two and three spatial dimensions. For gravitationally stable two-layer films with a lighter fluid on top of the heavier fluid, we find squares, hexagons, quasiperiodic patterns with eightfold symmetry as well as localized states in the form of large scale depletion regions or finite depth holes, occurring at the interface and surface. For a Rayleigh-Taylor unstable combination (heavier fluid above the light one) we show that external vibration increases the lifetime of the film by delaying or completely suppressing the film rupture.

• Received 31 May 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.1.063905