The crumbling of a viscous prism with an inclined free surface (Q1276178)

Two-dimensional instantaneous Stokes flow driven by gravity is studied in a viscous triangular prism supported by a horizontal substrate and a vertical wall. The oblique side of the prism, inclined at an angle \(\alpha\) to the substrate, is a fluid-air interface on which stresses are zero and the surface tension is neglected. A solution obtained for the stream-function in polar coordinates \((r,\theta)\) centered at the vertex consists of an inhomogeneous part accounting for the gravity effects, and a homogeneous part expanded in series. The inhomogeneous part and the first term of the series represent self-similar solutions of the first and second kind respectively for \(r\to 0\), each holding in complementary domains which cross over at \(\alpha_c =21.47^\circ\). The coefficients of the series are calculated by truncating the expansion and by using the method of direct collocation with suitable set of points at the wall. The authors study the solutions in detail for different values of \(\alpha\).