Stability criteria for swirl flows with free surfaces (Q1104182)

In this interesting paper the authors consider an infinitely long circular cylinder which rotates about its axis with a liquid film covering the rigid boundary either inside or outside. The surface tension between the liquid and the ambient gas is taken into account and the instabilities of this flow to centrifugal forces are investigated. Actually three types of instabilities may result, viz. centrifugal, capillary and Rayleigh-Taylor. If gravity is also considered and the cylinder lies horizontally a further mechanism of instability may occur. However in their paper the authors ignore gravity and focus their attention upon the first three types of instabilities. They generalize to interfacial systems the well-known Rayleigh criterion for stability- instability of inviscid fluids and the Synge's criterion for stability of viscous fluids.