Weakly nonlinear instability of a Newtonian liquid jet

Abstract

A weakly nonlinear stability analysis of an axisymmetric Newtonian liquid jet is presented. The calculation is based on a small-amplitude perturbation method and performed to second order in the perturbation parameter. The obtained solution includes terms derived from a polynomial approximation of a viscous contribution containing products of Bessel functions with different arguments. The use of such an approximation is not needed in the inviscid case and the planar case, since the equations of those problems can be solved in an exact form. The developed model depends on three dimensionless parameters: the initial perturbation amplitude, the perturbation wavenumber and the liquid Ohnesorge number, the latter being the dimensionless liquid viscosity. The influence of the approximate terms was shown to be relatively small for a large range of Ohnesorge numbers so that they can be ignored. This simplification provides a jet model as simple to use as the previous ones, but taking into account the liquid viscosity and the cylindrical geometry. The jet model is used to reveal the effect of both the wavenumber and the Ohnesorge number on the formation of satellite drops, which is known as a nonlinear effect. Results are found in good agreement with direct numerical simulations and forced liquid jet experiments for wavenumbers lower than a threshold value. Satellite drop formation is retarded with increasing Ohnesorge number and wavenumber, as expected by the damping and size effects of viscosity. The threshold number corresponds to the maximum wavenumber for which satellite drop formation is predicted before jet breakup, and for which volume conservation is satisfied within a certain amount. The volume conservation criterion is imposed to ensure that the conclusions inferred by our model are safe.