SeminarsSpring99.html

Manchester Applied Mathematics and Numerical Analysis Seminars

Spring 2000

February 23, 2000, 4.00 pm

Lecture Theatre OF/B9 Oddfellows Hall (Material Science)


The saturation of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Prof. David Halpern, Department of Mathematics, University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Alabma

The stability of a two fluid system between two horitontal plates is considered, where the lighter fluid is at the bottom, and a plane Couette-type flow between the plates is generated by an in-plane circular spinless motion of the upper plate. We derive and numerically study an evolution equation governing the thickness of the viscous film. The equation has the familiar Kuramoto-Sivashinsky (KS) form but is modified by an additional time-dependent factor multiplying the nonlinear term. Numerical solutions on extended spatial intervals reveal interesting time-asymptotic regimes in which averaged properties of the extensive spatiotemporal chaos are not steady but rather oscillate in time. The results are interpreted along the lines developed earlier for the simpler case of a film evolution governed by the classical, time-independent KS equation.

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For further info contact either Matthias Heil (mheil@ma.man.ac.uk), Mark Muldoon (M.Muldoon@umist.ac.uk)or the seminar secretary (Tel. 0161 275 5800).


Page last modified: January 28, 2000

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