English

Capillary wave turbulence on a spherical fluid surface in low gravity

Other Condensed Matter 2009-05-06 v2 Chaotic Dynamics Classical Physics Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

We report the observation of capillary wave turbulence on the surface of a fluid layer in a low-gravity environment. In such conditions, the fluid covers all the internal surface of the spherical container which is submitted to random forcing. The surface wave amplitude displays power-law spectrum over two decades in frequency, corresponding to wavelength from mmmm to a few cmcm. This spectrum is found in roughly good agreement with wave turbulence theory. Such a large scale observation without gravity waves has never been reached during ground experiments. When the forcing is periodic, two-dimensional spherical patterns are observed on the fluid surface such as subharmonic stripes or hexagons with wavelength satisfying the capillary wave dispersion relation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0708.1446,
  title  = {Capillary wave turbulence on a spherical fluid surface in low gravity},
  author = {Claudio Falcon and Eric Falcon and Umberto Bortolozzo and Stéphan Fauve},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.1446},
  year   = {2009}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:06:30.793Z