Unsteady Dynamics of Free-Interface Gravitational Liquid Sheet Flows

Abstract

Numerical simulations of gravitational planar liquid sheet flows, interacting with unconfined gaseous environments located on both sides of the liquid phase, are performed through Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) technique. The global unsteady dynamics of the non-parallel flow is analyzed by perturbing the initial steady configuration by means of a Gaussian bump in the transverse velocity component of relatively very small amplitude, thereby exciting sinuous modes. Thanks to the development of a theoretical linear one-dimensional model, more physical insights are gained on the flow system. It is found that surface tension plays a stabilizing role for the gravitational sheet, and for relatively high values of density ratio r

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