Noncircular converging flows in viscous gravity currents

We study the filling of a dry region (cavity) within a viscous liquid layer on a horizontal plane. In our experiments the cavities are created by removable dams of various shapes surrounded by a silicon oil, and we measure the evolution of the cavity’s boundaries after removal of the dams. Experimen...

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Autores principales: Diez, J.A., Thomas, L.P., Betelú, S., Gratton, R., Marino, B., Gratton, J., Aronson, D.G., Angenent, S.B.
Formato: JOUR
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_1063651X_v58_n5_p6182_Diez
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spelling todo:paper_1063651X_v58_n5_p6182_Diez2023-10-03T16:01:22Z Noncircular converging flows in viscous gravity currents Diez, J.A. Thomas, L.P. Betelú, S. Gratton, R. Marino, B. Gratton, J. Aronson, D.G. Angenent, S.B. We study the filling of a dry region (cavity) within a viscous liquid layer on a horizontal plane. In our experiments the cavities are created by removable dams of various shapes surrounded by a silicon oil, and we measure the evolution of the cavity’s boundaries after removal of the dams. Experimental runs with circular, equilateral triangular, and square dams result in circular collapse of the cavities. However, dams whose shapes lack these discrete rotational symmetries, for example, ellipses, rectangles, or isosceles triangles, do not lead to circular collapses. Instead, we find that near collapse the cavities have elongated oval shapes. The axes of these ovals shrink according to different power laws, so that while the cavity collapses to a point, the aspect ratio is increasing. The experimental setup is modeled within the lubrication approximation. As long as capillarity is negligible, the evolution of the fluid height is governed by a nonlinear diffusion equation. Numerical simulations of the experiments in this approximation show good agreement up to the time where the cavity is so small that surface tension can no longer be ignored. Nevertheless, the noncircular shape of the collapsing cavity cannot be due to surface tension which would tend to round the contours. These results are supplemented by numerical simulations of the evolution of contours which are initially circles distorted by small sinusoidal perturbations with wave numbers [Formula Presented] These nonlinear stability calculations show that the circle is unstable in the presence of the mode [Formula Presented] and stable in its absence. The same conclusion is obtained from the linearized stability analysis of the front for the known self-similar solution for a circular cavity. © 1998 The American Physical Society. JOUR info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ar http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_1063651X_v58_n5_p6182_Diez
institution Universidad de Buenos Aires
institution_str I-28
repository_str R-134
collection Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA)
description We study the filling of a dry region (cavity) within a viscous liquid layer on a horizontal plane. In our experiments the cavities are created by removable dams of various shapes surrounded by a silicon oil, and we measure the evolution of the cavity’s boundaries after removal of the dams. Experimental runs with circular, equilateral triangular, and square dams result in circular collapse of the cavities. However, dams whose shapes lack these discrete rotational symmetries, for example, ellipses, rectangles, or isosceles triangles, do not lead to circular collapses. Instead, we find that near collapse the cavities have elongated oval shapes. The axes of these ovals shrink according to different power laws, so that while the cavity collapses to a point, the aspect ratio is increasing. The experimental setup is modeled within the lubrication approximation. As long as capillarity is negligible, the evolution of the fluid height is governed by a nonlinear diffusion equation. Numerical simulations of the experiments in this approximation show good agreement up to the time where the cavity is so small that surface tension can no longer be ignored. Nevertheless, the noncircular shape of the collapsing cavity cannot be due to surface tension which would tend to round the contours. These results are supplemented by numerical simulations of the evolution of contours which are initially circles distorted by small sinusoidal perturbations with wave numbers [Formula Presented] These nonlinear stability calculations show that the circle is unstable in the presence of the mode [Formula Presented] and stable in its absence. The same conclusion is obtained from the linearized stability analysis of the front for the known self-similar solution for a circular cavity. © 1998 The American Physical Society.
format JOUR
author Diez, J.A.
Thomas, L.P.
Betelú, S.
Gratton, R.
Marino, B.
Gratton, J.
Aronson, D.G.
Angenent, S.B.
spellingShingle Diez, J.A.
Thomas, L.P.
Betelú, S.
Gratton, R.
Marino, B.
Gratton, J.
Aronson, D.G.
Angenent, S.B.
Noncircular converging flows in viscous gravity currents
author_facet Diez, J.A.
Thomas, L.P.
Betelú, S.
Gratton, R.
Marino, B.
Gratton, J.
Aronson, D.G.
Angenent, S.B.
author_sort Diez, J.A.
title Noncircular converging flows in viscous gravity currents
title_short Noncircular converging flows in viscous gravity currents
title_full Noncircular converging flows in viscous gravity currents
title_fullStr Noncircular converging flows in viscous gravity currents
title_full_unstemmed Noncircular converging flows in viscous gravity currents
title_sort noncircular converging flows in viscous gravity currents
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_1063651X_v58_n5_p6182_Diez
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