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On the steady solutions of the problem of Rayleigh–Taylor instability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2006

M. J. Tan
M. J. Tan
Affiliation:
Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Grenoble, Service des Transferts Thermiques, 85 X, 38041 Grenoble, France Present address: Chemical Engineering Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60201.
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Abstract

The problem of Rayleigh–Taylor instability is reexamined within the framework of incompressible, inviscid and irrotational fluid flow in a bounded three-dimensional domain. A relation proposed by Pimbley (1976) between the slope and the amplitude of the interface at the rigid boundary is adopted as the interface boundary condition. Steady solutions are derived in approximate form by using bifurcation theory. It is shown that under the conditions given some of the steady solutions exhibit the features of the well-known bubbles-and-spikes configuration and can be stable to infinitesimal disturbances.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 170 , September 1986 , pp. 339 - 353
Copyright
© 1986 Cambridge University Press

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