Centrifugally forced Rayleigh-Taylor instability

DOI10.1017/JFM.2018.539zbMATH Open1415.76738arXiv1801.01809OpenAlexW2781903210WikidataQ129397833 ScholiaQ129397833MaRDI QIDQ4585969FDOQ4585969

Authors: M. M. Scase, R. J. Hill 

Publication date: 11 September 2018

Published in: Journal of Fluid Mechanics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The effect of rotation on the classical gravity-driven Rayleigh-Taylor instability has been shown to influence the scale of the perturbations that develop at the unstable interface and consequently alter the speed of propagation of the front. The present authors argued that this is as a result of a competition between the destabilizing effect of gravity and the stabilizing effect of the rotation. In the present paper we consider the extreme limit of high rotation rates in which rotational forces dominate and gravitational forces may be ignored. The two liquid layers initially form concentric cylinders, centred on the axis of rotation. The configuration may be thought of as a fluid-fluid centrifuge. There are two types of perturbation to the interface that may be considered, an azimuthal perturbation around the circumference of the interface and a varicose perturbation in the axial direction along the length of the interface. It is the first of these types of perturbation that we consider here, and so the flow may be considered essentially two-dimensional, taking place in a circular domain. We carry out a linear stability analysis on a perturbation to the hydrostatic background state and derive a fourth order Orr-Sommerfeld-like equation that governs the system. We consider the dynamics of systems of stable and unstable configurations, inviscid and viscous fluids, immiscible fluid layers with surface tension, and miscible fluid layers that may have some initial diffusion of density. Theoretical predictions are compared with numerical experiments and the agreement is shown to be good. We do not restrict our analysis to equal volume fluid layers and so our results also have applications in coating and lubrication problems in rapidly rotating systems and machinery.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.01809

Recommendations

• Cylindrical rotating Rayleigh-Taylor instability
• Rayleigh-Taylor stability in the presence of rotation
• Rayleigh-CTaylor instability for compressible rotating flows
• Rayleigh–Taylor problem for a liquid–liquid phase interface
• Rayleigh-Taylor instability of rotating fluid in the presence of a vertical magnetic field

zbMATH Keywords

convectionrotating flowbuoyancy-driven instability

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General theory of rotating fluids (76U05) Interfacial stability and instability in hydrodynamic stability (76E17) Stability and instability of nonparallel flows in hydrodynamic stability (76E09)

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Cited In (5)

• Rotational stabilisation of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability at the inner surface of an imploding liquid shell
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Static and dynamic stability of pendant drops
• Cylindrical rotating Rayleigh-Taylor instability
• Centrifugally forced Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Uses Software

• Chebfun
• InterFOAM

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