Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-29T03:22:17.233Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Three-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor instability Part 2. Experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2006

J. W. Jacobs  and
I. Catton
J. W. Jacobs
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA Present address: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125.
I. Catton
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Three-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor instability, induced by accelerating a small volume of water down a vertical tube using air pressure, is investigated. Two geometries are studied: a 15.875 cm circular tube and a 12.7 cm square tube. Runs were made with initial disturbances in the form of standing waves forced by shaking the test section in a lateral direction. Accelerations ranging from 5 to 10 times gravitational acceleration and wavenumbers from 1 cm−1 to 8 cm−1 are studied. The resulting instability was recorded and later analysed using high-speed motion picture photography. Measurements of the growth rate are found to agree well with linear theory. In addition, good qualitative agreement between photographs and three-dimensional surface plots of the weakly nonlinear solution of Part 1 of this series (Jacobs & Catton 1988) is obtained.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 187 , February 1988 , pp. 353 - 371
Copyright
© 1988 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allred, J. C. & Blount, G. H. 1954 Experimental studies of Taylor instability. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory rep. LA-1600.
Bellman, R. & Pennington, R. H. 1954 Effects of surface tension and viscosity on Taylor instability. Q. Appl. Maths 12, 151–162.Google Scholar
Cole, R. L. & Tankin, R. S. 1973 Experimental study of Taylor instability. Phys. Fluids 16, 1810–1815.Google Scholar
Duff, R. E., Harlow, F. H. & Hirt, C. W. 1962 Effects of diffusion on interface instability between gases. Phys. Fluids 5, 417–425.Google Scholar
Emmons, H. W., Chang, C. T. & Watson, B. C. 1960 Taylor instability of finite surface waves. J. Fluid Mech. 7, 177–193.Google Scholar
Jacobs, J. W. 1986 Three-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor instability: experiment and theory. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.
Jacobs, J. W., Bunster, A., Catton, I. & Plesset, M. S. 1985 Experimental Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a circular tube. Trans. ASME I: J. Fluids Engng 107, 460–466.Google Scholar
Jacobs, J. W. & Catton, I. 1988 Three-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Part 1. Weakly nonlinear theory. J. Fluid Mech. 187, 329–352.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. J. 1950 The instability of liquid surfaces when accelerated in a direction perpendicular to their planes. II. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 202, 81–96.Google Scholar
Nayfeh, A. H. 1969 On the non-linear Lamb-Taylor instability. J. Fluid Mech. 38, 619–631.Google Scholar
Popil, R. & Curzon, F. L. 1980 Climbing water films in experiments on Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities. Phys. Fluids 23, 1718–1719.Google Scholar
Ratafia, M. 1973 Experimental investigation of Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Phys. Fluids 16, 1207–1220.Google Scholar
Taylor, G. I. 1950 The instability of liquid surfaces when accelerated in a direction perpendicular to their planes. I. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 201, 192–196.Google Scholar