Spiky development at the interface in Rayleigh-Taylor instability: Layzer approximation with second harmonic

TL;DR

This paper extends Layzer's approximation for Rayleigh-Taylor instability by including second harmonic modes, revealing spike sharpening and potential finite-time singularities depending on initial conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a modified Layzer approximation with second harmonic modes, avoiding unphysical assumptions and providing new insights into spike behavior and singularity formation.

Findings

Spike sharpens with increasing Atwood number.

Finite time singularities can occur under certain initial conditions.

Bubble growth rate remains largely unaffected.

Abstract

Layzer's approximation method for investigation of two fluid interface structures associated with Rayleigh Taylor instability for arbitrary Atwood number is extended with the inclusion of second harmonic mode leaving out the zeroth harmonic one. The modification makes the fluid velocities vanish at infinity and leads to avoidance of the need to make the unphysical assumption of the existence of a time dependent source at infinity. The present analysis shows that for an initial interface perturbation with curvature exceeding 1/(2sqrt{A}), where $A$ is the Atwood number there occurs an almost free fall of the spike with continuously increasing sharpening as it falls. The curvature at the tip of the spike also increases with Atwood number. Certain initial condition may also result in occurrence of finite time singularity as found in case of conformal mapping technique used earlier. However bubble growth rate is not appreciably affected.