Journal of Fluid Mechanics
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics / Volume 677 / June 2011, pp 39-62
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011. The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/>. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use.
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2011.43 (About DOI), Published online: 09 May 2011
- OPEN ACCESS
Papers
Experimental studies of surface waves inside a cylindrical container
CUNBIAO LEEa1 c1, HUAIWU PENGa1, HUIJING YUANa1, JIEZHI WUa1, MINGDE ZHOUa1 and FAZLE HUSSAINa2
a1 State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
a2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204 4006, USA
Abstract
We experimentally investigate the dynamics of surface waves excited by oscillations from a cylindrical sidewall. Particle-imaging-velocimetry measurements with fluorescent particles were used to determine the flow patterns near the sidewall of the cylindrical fluid container and to identify the locations of the evolving air–water interfaces. The high-frequency wall oscillations created four jets that originate at the cylindrical sidewall. Four vortex streets shed from the jets propagate from the sidewall to the centre of the container and subsequently excite a low-frequency gravity wave. The interaction between this gravitational surface wave and the high-frequency capillary waves was found to be responsible for creating droplet splash at the water surface. This phenomenon was first described as ‘Long-Xi’ or ‘dragon wash’ in ancient China. The physical processes for generating the droplet ejection, including the circular capillary waves, azimuthal waves, streaming jets and low-frequency gravity waves, are described in this paper.
(Received February 01 2010)
(Revised January 16 2011)
(Accepted January 22 2011)
(Online publication May 09 2011)
Key words:
- capillary waves;
- instability
Correspondence:
c1 Email address for correspondence: cblee@mech.pku.edu.cn
