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The initial development of a jet caused by fluid, body and free surface interaction with a uniformly accelerated advancing or retreating plate. Part 2. Well-posedness and stability of the principal flow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2018

M. T. Gallagher
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
D. J. Needham*
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
J. Billingham
Affiliation:
School of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
*
Email address for correspondence: d.j.needham@bham.ac.uk

Abstract

We consider the problem of a rigid plate, inclined at an angle $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\in (0,\unicode[STIX]{x03C0}/2)$ to the horizontal, accelerating uniformly from rest into, or away from, a semi-infinite strip of inviscid, incompressible fluid under gravity. Following on from Gallagher et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 841, 2018, pp. 109–145) (henceforth referred to as GNB), it is of interest to analyse the well-posedness and stability of the principal flow with respect to perturbations in the initially horizontal free surface close to the plate contact point. In particular we find that the solution to the principal unperturbed problem, denoted by [IBVP] in GNB, is well-posed and stable with respect to perturbations in initial data in the region of interest, localised close to the contact point of the free surface and the plate, when the plate is accelerated with dimensionless acceleration $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}\geqslant -\cot \,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ , while the solution to [IBVP] is ill-posed with respect to such perturbations in the initial data, when the plate is accelerated with dimensionless acceleration $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}<-\cot \,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ . The physical source of the ill-posedness of the principal problem [IBVP], when $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}<-\cot \,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ , is revealed to be due to the leading-order problem in the innermost region localised close to the initial contact point being in the form of a local Rayleigh–Taylor problem. As a consequence of this mechanistic interpretation we anticipate that, when the plate is accelerated with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}<-\cot \,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ , the inclusion of weak surface tension effects will restore well-posedness of the problem [IBVP] which will, however, remain temporally unstable.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© 2018 Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Definition sketch showing the displacement of the plate and free surface at time $t$.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Graph of the evolution of $H^{\prime \prime }(\widehat{x},\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F})$ (related to the free surface displacement through (4.46), (4.43), (4.41) and (4.18)) against $\widehat{x}$ for the numerical solution of [EBVP], for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.75$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=1.5$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=2.25$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=3$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=3.75$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=4.5$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=5.25$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=6$, (ai) where $\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}}=1$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=1.4$. In each plot a dash-dot line shows the location of the plate, a dotted line shows the solution for the case of zero initial data and a solid line shows the solution when the initial data are as given in (4.61).

Figure 2

Figure 3. Graph of the evolution of $H^{\prime \prime }(\widehat{x},\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F})$ (related to the free surface displacement through (4.46), (4.43), (4.41) and (4.18)) against $\widehat{x}$ for the numerical solution of [EBVP], for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.13$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.25$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.38$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.5$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.63$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.75$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.88$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=1$, (ai) where $\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}}=0$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=1.4$. In each plot a dash-dot line shows the location of the plate, a dotted line shows the solution for the case of zero initial data and a solid line shows the solution when the initial data are as given in (4.61).

Figure 3

Figure 4. Graph of the evolution of $H^{\prime \prime }(\widehat{x},\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F})$ (related to the free surface displacement through (4.46), (4.43), (4.41) and (4.18)) against $\widehat{x}$, showing agreement with the far-field asymptotic form (4.56) for the numerical solution of [EBVP], for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.75$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=1.5$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=2.25$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=3$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=3.75$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=4.5$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=5.25$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=6$, where $\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}}=1$, and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=1.4$. Here $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$ increases reading from the bottom of the figure to the top. The dash-dot line shows the location of the plate, solid lines show the numerical solution when the initial data are as given in (4.61), and dotted lines plot the far-field asymptotic form (4.56).

Figure 4

Figure 5. Graph of the evolution of $H^{\prime \prime }(\widehat{x},\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F})$ (related to the free surface displacement through (4.46), (4.43), (4.41) and (4.18)) against $\widehat{x}$, showing agreement with the far-field asymptotic form (4.56) for the numerical solution of [EBVP], for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.13$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.25$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.38$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.5$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.63$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.75$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=0.88$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=1$, where $\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}}=0$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=1.4$. Here $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$ increases reading from the bottom of the figure to the top. The dash-dot line shows the location of the plate, solid lines show the numerical solution when the initial data are as given in (4.61), and dotted lines plot the far-field asymptotic form (4.56).