The Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

TL;DR

This paper investigates how rotation influences the classical Rayleigh-Taylor instability, showing that rotation can stabilize certain wave modes and comparing theoretical predictions with experimental results involving magnetic fields and different fluids.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of rotational effects on Rayleigh-Taylor instability and validates the findings with experimental data involving diamagnetic and paramagnetic fluids.

Findings

Rotation can reduce the growth rate of wave modes.

Unstable axisymmetric modes can be stabilized above a critical rotation rate.

Theoretical predictions align with experimental observations.

Abstract

The effect of rotation upon the classical two-layer Rayleigh-Taylor instability is considered theoretically and compared with previous experimental results. In particular we consider a two-layer system with an axis of rotation that is perpendicular to the interface between the layers. In general we find that a wave mode's growth rate may be reduced by rotation. We further show that in some cases, unstable axisymmetric wave modes may be stabilized by rotating the system above a critical rotation rate associated with the mode's wavelength, the Atwood number and the flow's aspect ratio. We compare our theory with experiments conducted in a magnetic field using 'heavy' diamagnetic and 'light' paramagnetic fluids and present comparisons between the theoretical predictions and experimental observations.