Talk:Rayleigh-Taylor instability
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What the *** is tangential gravity??? 80.177.213.144 19:05, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Now slightly rewritten to remove the phrase Linuxlad 13:50, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Fine, but not the preferred explanation for Labscale RT, I think
Shouldn't "which acts to break a cylindrical jet into a stream of droplets having the same volume but lower surface area" actually read "which acts to break a cylindrical jet into a stream of droplets having the same volume but greater surface area"?
No... the Rayleigh limit indicates that if a cylinderical jet (radius R) of liquid is subjected to spatially periodic vericose surface perturbation of wavelength L, the perturbation will grow and the jet will break up into drops, even if the perturbation is of infinitesimal amplitude, so long as the wavelength of the perturbation exceeds the circumference of the unperturbed cylinder (i.e., L>2*Pi*R). Its easy to show that the lateral surface area of a cylinder (i.e., excluding the area of the ends) of raduis R and length L is greater than the surface area of a sphere of equivalent volume as long as L > 4.5R. Clearly, then, the surface area of the drops formed from the Rayleigh instability is less than the surface area of the one wavelength segments of the cylinder from which the drops are formed.
[edit] Nuclear Weapons R-T
The first place I ever heard of R-T instability (called just "Taylor Instability" at the time) was in the subject of nuclear weapons design. R-T occurs in the pit when the implosion shockwave crosses the border between two components, most notibily the uranium tamper and berylium reflector. Future re-writes of this article might reflect this. Reference: ([1])
Also: Who were Rayleigh and Taylor. Is that the same Ted Taylor, the nuclear weapons designer.
Lord Rayleigh aka J. W. Strutt, and (Sir) Geoffrey Ingram Taylor - Taylor worked for UK MoD for a time and developed the 'shaped charge' where the metal cone flows like a fluid and forms an armour-piercing jet - he also worked on the Manhattan Project - HTH Linuxlad 08:50, 27 July 2006 (UTC).
[edit] Inaccuracy in reference
Note that the RT instability is not to be confused with the Rayleigh instability (or Plateau-Rayleigh instability) of a liquid jet. This latter instability, sometime called the hosepipe (or firehose) instability, occurs due to surface tension, which acts to break a cylindrical jet into a stream of droplets having the same volume but lower surface area. This reference: Actual images and videos of RT fingers ends with "Manifestations of Rayleigh-Taylor instability," which actually illustrates Plateau-Rayleigh instability. Something's gotta give. -AndromedaRoach 03:19, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Rayleigh Theorem is incorrect
http://de.arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0610/0610082.pdf According to secion 5 of the reference, (see page 9), some "Rayleigh theorem" is incorrect. I don't know of this is the place for that, but there can't be too many Rayleigh's in the field of Fluid Dynamics, so they are probably talking about the same man, even if it isn't quite the same instability. Crysta1c1ear 03:28, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
This reference, categorically, does not refer to either the Rayleigh-Taylor instability or the Rayleigh instability
