Harmonic growth of spherical Rayleigh-Taylor instability in weakly nonlinear regime

Abstract

Harmonic growth in classical Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) on a spherical interface is analytically investigated using the method of the parameter expansion up to the third order. Our results show that the amplitudes of the first four harmonics will recover those in planar RTI as the interface radius tends to infinity compared against the initial perturbation wavelength. The initial radius dramatically influences the harmonic development. The appearance of the second-order feedback to the initial unperturbed interface (i.e., the zeroth harmonic) makes the interface move towards the spherical center. For these four harmonics, the smaller the initial radius is, the faster they grow.