On the role of unsteadiness in impulsive-flow-driven shear instabilities: precursors of fragmentation.

ABSTRACT: Shear instabilities at the interface of two fluids, such as classical Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI), is the precursor of interface destabilization, leading to fluid fragmentation critical in a wide range of applications. While many insights into such instabilities are derived for steady background forcing flow, unsteady impulse flows are ubiquitous in environmental and physiological processes. Yet, little is understood on how unsteadiness shapes the initial interface amplification necessary for the onset of its topological change enabling subsequent fragmentation. In this combined theoretical, numerical and experimental study, we focus on an air-on-liquid interface exposed to canonical unsteady shear flow profiles. Evolution of the perturbed interface is formulated theoretically as an

SUBMITTER: Shen N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12392987 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature