On the Kapitza instability and the generation of capillary waves

2016 ◽  
Vol 789 ◽  
pp. 368-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg F. Dietze

We revisit the classical problem of a liquid film falling along a vertical wall due to the action of gravity, i.e. the Kapitza paradigm (Kapitza, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz., vol. 18, 1948, pp. 3–28). The free surface of such a flow is typically deformed into a train of solitary pulses that consists of large asymmetric wave humps preceded by small precursory ripples, designated as ‘capillary waves’. We set out to answer four fundamental questions. (i) By what mechanism do the precursory ripples form? (ii) How can they travel at the same celerity as the large-amplitude main humps? (iii) Why are they designated as ‘capillary waves’? (iv) What determines their wavelength and number and why do they attenuate in space? Asymptotic expansion as well as direct numerical simulations and calculations with a low-dimensional integral boundary-layer model have yielded the following conclusions. (i) Precursory ripples form due to an inertia-based mechanism at the foot of the leading front of the main humps, where the local free-surface curvature is large. (ii) The celerity of capillary waves is matched to that of the large humps due to the action of surface tension, which speeds up the former and slows down the latter. (iii) They are justly designated as ‘capillary waves’ because their wavelength is systematically shorter than the visco-capillary cutoff wavelength of the Kapitza instability. Due to a nonlinear effect, namely that their celerity decreases with decreasing amplitude, they nonetheless attain/maintain a finite amplitude because of being continuously compressed by the pursuing large humps. (iv) The number and degree of compression of capillary waves is governed by the amplitude of the main wave humps as well as the Kapitza number. Large-amplitude main humps travel fast and strongly compress the capillary waves in order for these to speed up sufficiently. Also, the more pronounced the first capillary wave becomes, the more (spatially attenuating) capillary waves are needed to allow a smooth transition to the back of the next main hump. These effects are amplified by decreasing the Kapitza number, whereby, at very small values, streamwise viscous diffusion increasingly attenuates the amplitude of the capillary waves.

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (12) ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshito Tsuchiya ◽  
Masataka Yamaguchi

The purpose of this paper is to make clear the validity and limiting condition for the application of the finite amplitude standing wave theories by the perturbation method In a numerical example, the errors of each order solution of these theories for two non-linear free surface conditions are computed for various kinds of wave characteristics and compared with each other Some experiments on the wave pressure on a vertical wall by standing waves were carried out and a plot of the limiting condition for the application of these theories is proposed based on the comparison with theoretical curves In addition, as an example of the application of these theories, the change of characteristics of wave pressure of standing waves accompanying the overtopping wave on a vertical wall is discussed.


Author(s):  
Matthieu A. Andre ◽  
Philippe M. Bardet

Shear instabilities induced by the relaxation of laminar boundary layer at the free surface of a high speed liquid jet are investigated experimentally. Physical insights into these instabilities and the resulting capillary wave growth are gained by performing non-intrusive measurements of flow structure in the direct vicinity of the surface. The experimental results are a combination of surface visualization, planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF), particle image velocimetry (PIV), and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV). They suggest that 2D spanwise vortices in the shear layer play a major role in these instabilities by triggering 2D waves on the free surface as predicted by linear stability analysis. These vortices, however, are found to travel at a different speed than the capillary waves they initially created resulting in interference with the waves and wave growth. A new experimental facility was built; it consists of a 20.3 × 146.mm rectangular water wall jet with Reynolds number based on channel depth between 3.13 × 104 to 1.65 × 105 and 115. to 264. based on boundary layer momentum thickness.


1976 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 1517-1519 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. K. Shukla ◽  
M. Y. Yu ◽  
S. G. Tagare

Abstract We show analytically that the nonlinear coupling of a large amplitude electromagnetic wave with finite amplitude ion fluctuations leads to filamentation. The latter consists of striations of the electromagnetic radiation trapped in depressions of the plasma density. The filamentation is found to be either standing or moving normal to the direction of the incoming radiation. Criteria for the existence of localized filaments are obtained. Small amplitude results are discussed.


1978 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. Scott

It is shown that the wavelets which appear on the inertial wave form of the inner free surface of a fully spun-up cylindrical mass of liquid contained in a vertical, rapidly rotating and gyrating gyrostat are capillary waves. It is further shown that the interaction between these capillary waves and the excited inertial waves is not the mechanism which effects an observed two-period collapse (‘breakdown’) and reappearance of the free-surface inertial wave form. Rather, the two-period breakdown can be explained by the conjecture that it is a beat phenomenon arising from the interaction of two differently structured inertial wave modes, which have the same frequency at small amplitudes of oscillation of the gyrostat but which, owing to the dependence of the inertial mode frequency on the amplitude of the gyrostatic motion, have slightly different frequencies at larger amplitudes of oscillation of the gyrostat.


2003 ◽  
Vol 475 ◽  
pp. 377-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
SERAFIM KALLIADASIS ◽  
ALLA KIYASHKO ◽  
E. A. DEMEKHIN

We consider the motion of a liquid film falling down a heated planar substrate. Using the integral-boundary-layer approximation of the Navier–Stokes/energy equations and free-surface boundary conditions, it is shown that the problem is governed by two coupled nonlinear partial differential equations for the evolution of the local film height and temperature distribution in time and space. Two-dimensional steady-state solutions of these equations are reported for different values of the governing dimensionless groups. Our computations demonstrate that the free surface develops a bump in the region where the wall temperature gradient is positive. We analyse the linear stability of this bump with respect to disturbances in the spanwise direction. We show that the operator of the linearized system has both a discrete and an essential spectrum. The discrete spectrum bifurcates from resonance poles at certain values of the wavenumber for the disturbances in the transverse direction. The essential spectrum is always stable while part of the discrete spectrum becomes unstable for values of the Marangoni number larger than a critical value. Above this critical Marangoni number the growth rate curve as a function of wavenumber has a finite band of unstable modes which increases as the Marangoni number increases.


Author(s):  
Valentina Laface ◽  
Giovanni Malara ◽  
Felice Arena ◽  
Ioannis A. Kougioumtzoglou ◽  
Alessandra Romolo

The paper addresses the problem of deriving the nonlinear, up to the second order, crest wave height probability distribution in front of a vertical wall under the assumption of finite spectral bandwidth, finite water depth and long-crested waves. The distribution is derived by relying on the Quasi-Deterministic representation of the free surface elevation in front of the vertical wall. The theoretical results are compared against experimental data obtained by utilizing a compressive sensing algorithm for reconstructing the free surface elevation in front of the wall. The reconstruction is pursued by starting from recorded wave pressure time histories obtained by utilizing a row of pressure transducers located at various levels. The comparison shows that there is an excellent agreement between the proposed distribution and the experimental data and confirm the deviation of the crest height distribution from the Rayleigh one.


1979 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Y. Holyer

This paper contains a study of large amplitude, progressive interfacial waves moving between two infinite fluids of different densities. The highest wave has been calculated using the criterion that it has zero horizontal fluid velocity at the interface in a frame moving at the phase speed of the waves. For free surface waves this criterion is identical to the criterion due to Stokes, namely that there is a stagnation point at the crest of each wave. I t is found that as the density of the upper fluid increases relative to the density of the lower fluid the maximum height of the wave, for fixed wavelength, increases. The maximum height of a Boussinesq wave, which has the density almost the same above and below the interface, is 2·5 times the maximum height of a surface wave of the same wavelength. A wave with air over the top of it can be about 2% higher than the highest free surface wave. The point at which the limiting criterion is first satisfied moves from the crest for free surface waves to the point half-way between the crest and the trough for Boussinesq waves. The phase speed, momentum, energy and other wave properties are calculated for waves up to the highest using Padé approximants. For free surface waves and waves with air above the interface the maximum value of these properties occurs for waves which are lower than the highest. For Boussinesq waves and waves with the density of the upper fluid onetenth of the density of the lower fluid these properties each increase monotonically with the wave height.


2014 ◽  
Vol 762 ◽  
pp. 68-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg F. Dietze ◽  
Christian Ruyer-Quil

AbstractWe consider the axisymmetric arrangement of an annular liquid film, coating the inner surface of a narrow cylindrical tube, in interaction with an active core fluid. We introduce a low-dimensional model based on the two-phase weighted residual integral boundary layer (WRIBL) formalism (Dietze & Ruyer-Quil, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 722, 2013, pp. 348–393) which is able to capture the long-wave instabilities characterizing such flows. Our model improves upon existing works by fully representing interfacial coupling and accounting for inertia as well as streamwise viscous diffusion in both phases. We apply this model to gravity-free liquid-film/core-fluid arrangements in narrow capillaries with specific attention to the dynamics leading to flooding, i.e. when the liquid film drains into large-amplitude collars that occlude the tube cross-section. We do this against the background of linear stability calculations and nonlinear two-phase direct numerical simulations (DNS). Due to the improvements of our model, we have found a number of novel/salient physical features of these flows. First, we show that it is essential to account for inertia and full interphase coupling to capture the temporal evolution of flooding for fluid combinations that are not dominated by viscosity, e.g. water/air and water/silicone oil. Second, we elucidate a viscous-blocking mechanism which drastically delays flooding in thin films that are too thick to form unduloids. This mechanism involves buckling of the residual film between two liquid collars, generating two very pronounced film troughs where viscous dissipation is drastically increased and growth effectively arrested. Only at very long times does breaking of symmetry in this region (due to small perturbations) initiate a sliding motion of the liquid film similar to observations by Lister et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 552, 2006, pp. 311–343) in thin non-flooding films. This kickstarts the growth of liquid collars anew and ultimately leads to flooding. We show that streamwise viscous diffusion is essential to this mechanism. Low-frequency core-flow oscillations, such as occur in human pulmonary capillaries, are found to set off this sliding-induced flooding mechanism much earlier.


2001 ◽  
Vol 429 ◽  
pp. 343-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRUCE R. SUTHERLAND

The evolution and stability of two-dimensional, large-amplitude, non-hydrostatic internal wavepackets are examined analytically and by numerical simulations. The weakly nonlinear dispersion relation for horizontally periodic, vertically compact internal waves is derived and the results are applied to assess the stability of weakly nonlinear wavepackets to vertical modulations. In terms of Θ, the angle that lines of constant phase make with the vertical, the wavepackets are predicted to be unstable if [mid ]Θ[mid ] < Θc, where Θc = cos−1 (2/3)1/2 ≃ 35.3° is the angle corresponding to internal waves with the fastest vertical group velocity. Fully nonlinear numerical simulations of finite-amplitude wavepackets confirm this prediction: the amplitude of wavepackets with [mid ]Θ[mid ] > Θc decreases over time; the amplitude of wavepackets with [mid ]Θ[mid ] < Θc increases initially, but then decreases as the wavepacket subdivides into a wave train, following the well-known Fermi–Pasta–Ulam recurrence phenomenon.If the initial wavepacket is of sufficiently large amplitude, it becomes unstable in the sense that eventually it convectively overturns. Two new analytic conditions for the stability of quasi-plane large-amplitude internal waves are proposed. These are qualitatively and quantitatively different from the parametric instability of plane periodic internal waves. The ‘breaking condition’ requires not only that the wave is statically unstable but that the convective instability growth rate is greater than the frequency of the waves. The critical amplitude for breaking to occur is found to be ACV = cot Θ (1 + cos2 Θ)/2π, where ACV is the ratio of the maximum vertical displacement of the wave to its horizontal wavelength. A second instability condition proposes that a statically stable wavepacket may evolve so that it becomes convectively unstable due to resonant interactions between the waves and the wave-induced mean flow. This hypothesis is based on the assumption that the resonant long wave–short wave interaction, which Grimshaw (1977) has shown amplifies the waves linearly in time, continues to amplify the waves in the fully nonlinear regime. Using linear theory estimates, the critical amplitude for instability is ASA = sin 2Θ/(8π2)1/2. The results of numerical simulations of horizontally periodic, vertically compact wavepackets show excellent agreement with this latter stability condition. However, for wavepackets with horizontal extent comparable with the horizontal wavelength, the wavepacket is found to be stable at larger amplitudes than predicted if Θ [lsim ] 45°. It is proposed that these results may explain why internal waves generated by turbulence in laboratory experiments are often observed to be excited within a narrow frequency band corresponding to Θ less than approximately 45°.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 377-419
Author(s):  
Larry K. Forbes ◽  
Stephen J. Walters ◽  
Graeme C. Hocking

A classical problem in free-surface hydrodynamics concerns flow in a channel, when an obstacle is placed on the bottom. Steady-state flows exist and may adopt one of three possible configurations, depending on the fluid speed and the obstacle height; perhaps the best known has an apparently uniform flow upstream of the obstacle, followed by a semiinfinite train of downstream gravity waves. When time-dependent behaviour is taken into account, it is found that conditions upstream of the obstacle are more complicated, however, and can include a train of upstream-advancing solitons. This paper gives a critical overview of these concepts, and also presents a new semianalytical spectral method for the numerical description of unsteady behaviour. doi:10.1017/S1446181121000341


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