The Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Abstract
The effect of rotation upon the classical two-layer Rayleigh-Taylor instability is considered theoretically and compared with previous experimental results. In particular we consider a two-layer system with an axis of rotation that is perpendicular to the interface between the layers. In general we find that a wave mode's growth rate may be reduced by rotation. We further show that in some cases, unstable axisymmetric wave modes may be stabilized by rotating the system above a critical rotation rate associated with the mode's wavelength, the Atwood number and the flow's aspect ratio. We compare our theory with experiments conducted in a magnetic field using 'heavy' diamagnetic and 'light' paramagnetic fluids and present comparisons between the theoretical predictions and experimental observations.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1603.00675,
title = {The Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability},
author = {Matthew M. Scase and Kyle A. Baldwin and Richard J. A. Hill},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.00675},
year = {2016}
}