File:Crab Nebula.jpg
RT fingers evident in the Crab Nebula

The Rayleigh–Taylor instability, or RT instability (after Lord Rayleigh and G. I. Taylor), is an instability of an interface between two fluids of different densities, which occurs when the lighter fluid is pushing the heavier fluid.[1] [2] This is the case with an interstellar cloud and shock system. The equivalent situation occurs when gravity is acting on two fluids of different density – with the dense fluid above a fluid of lesser density – such as water balancing on light oil.[2]

Consider two completely plane-parallel layers of immiscible fluid, the heavier on top of the light one and both subject to the Earth's gravity. The equilibrium here is unstable to certain perturbations or disturbances. An unstable disturbance will grow and lead to a release of potential energy, as the heavier material moves down under the (effective) gravitational field, and the lighter material is displaced upwards. This was the set-up as studied by Lord Rayleigh.[2] The important insight by G. I. Taylor was, that he realised this situation is equivalent to the situation when the fluids are accelerated (without gravity), with the lighter fluid accelerating into the heavier fluid.[2] This can be experienced, for example, by accelerating a glass of water downward faster than the Earth's gravitational acceleration.[2]

As the instability develops, downward-moving irregularities ('dimples') are quickly magnified into sets of inter-penetrating Rayleigh–Taylor fingers. Therefore the Rayleigh–Taylor instability is sometimes qualified to be a fingering instability.[3] The upward-moving, lighter material is shaped like mushroom caps.[4][5]

This process is evident not only in many terrestrial examples, from salt domes to weather inversions, but also in astrophysics and electrohydrodynamics. RT fingers are especially obvious in the Crab Nebula, in which the expanding pulsar wind nebula powered by the Crab pulsar is sweeping up ejected material from the supernova explosion 1000 years ago.[6]

Note that the RT instability is not to be confused with the Plateau-Rayleigh instability (also known as Rayleigh instability) of a liquid jet. This instability, sometimes 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.

Demonstrating the instability in the kitchen

The Rayleigh-Taylor instability can be demonstrated using common household items. The experiment consists of adding three tablespoons of molasses to a large, heat-resistant glass, and filling up with milk. The glass has to be transparent so that the instability can be seen. The glass is then put in a microwave oven, and heated on maximum power until the instability occurs. This happens before the milk boils. When the molasses heats sufficiently, it becomes less dense than the milk above it, and the instability occurs. Shortly after this, the molasses and milk mix together, forming a light brown liquid.

Linear stability analysis

File:Rti base.png
Base state of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability. Gravity points downwards.

The inviscid two-dimensional Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instability provides an excellent springboard into the mathematical study of stability because of the exceptionally simple nature of the base state.[7] This is the equilibrium state that exists before any perturbation is added to the system, and is described by the mean velocity field \(U(x,z)=W(x,z)=0,\,\) where the gravitational field is \(\textbf{g}=-g\hat{\textbf{z}}.\,\) An interface at \(z=0\,\) separates the fluids of densities \(\rho_G\,\) in the upper region, and \(\rho_L\,\) in the lower region. In this section it is shown that when the heavy fluid sits on top, the growth of a small perturbation at the interface is exponential, and takes place at the rate[2]

\[\exp(\gamma\,t)\;, \qquad\text{with}\quad \gamma={\sqrt{\mathcal{A}g\alpha}} \quad\text{and}\quad \mathcal{A}=\frac{\rho_{\text{heavy}}-\rho_{\text{light}}}{\rho_{\text{heavy}}+\rho_{\text{light}}},\,\]

where \(\gamma\,\) is the temporal growth rate, \(\alpha\,\) is the spatial wavenumber and \(\mathcal{A}\,\) is the Atwood number.

File:HD-Rayleigh-Taylor.gif
Hydrodynamics simulation of a single "finger" of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability[9] Note the formation of Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities, in the second and later snapshots shown (starting initially around the level \(y=0\)), as well as the formation of a "mushroom cap" at a later stage in the third and fourth frame in the sequence.

The time evolution of the free interface elevation \(z = \eta(x,t),\,\) initially at \(\eta(x,0)=\Re\left\{B\,\exp\left(i\alpha x\right)\right\},\,\) is given by:

\[\eta=\Re\left\{B\,\exp\left(\sqrt{\mathcal{A}g\alpha}\,t\right)\exp\left(i\alpha x\right)\right\}\,\]

which grows exponentially in time. Here B is the amplitude of the initial perturbation, and \(\Re\left\{\cdot\right\}\,\) denotes the real part of the complex valued expression between brackets.

In general, the condition for linear instability is that the imaginary part of the "wave speed" c be positive. Finally, restoring the surface tension makes c2 less negative and is therefore stabilizing. Indeed, there is a range of short waves for which the surface tension stabilizes the system and prevents the instability forming.

Late-time behaviour

The analysis of the previous section breaks down when the amplitude of the perturbation is large. The growth then becomes non-linear as the spikes and bubbles of the instability tangle and roll up into vortices. Then, as in the figure, numerical simulation of the full problem is required to describe the system.

See also

Notes

  1. Script error
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Drazin (2002) pp. 50–51.
  3. Script error
  4. Wang, C.-Y. & Chevalier R. A. (2000). "Instabilities and Clumping in Type Ia Supernova Remnants". arXiv:astro-ph/0005105v1.
  5. Script error. See page 274.
  6. Script error
  7. 7.0 7.1 Drazin (2002) pp. 48–52.
  8. A similar derivation appears in Chandrasekhar (1981), §92, pp. 433–435.
  9. Li, Shengtai and Hui Li. "Parallel AMR Code for Compressible MHD or HD Equations". Los Alamos National Laboratory. http://math.lanl.gov/Research/Highlights/amrmhd.shtml. Retrieved 2006-09-05.

References

Original research papers

Other

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  • Script error xvii+238 pages.
  • Script error 626 pages.

External links

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