Subharmonic parametric instability in nearly brimful circular cylinders: a weakly nonlinear analysis

In labscale Faraday experiments, meniscus waves respond harmonically to small-amplitude forcing without threshold, hence potentially cloaking the instability onset of parametric waves. Their suppression can be achieved by imposing a contact line pinned at the container brim with static contact angle theta(s) = 90 0 (brimful condition). However, tunable meniscus waves are desired in some applications as those of liquid-based biosensors, where they can be controlled adjusting the shape of the static meniscus by slightly underfilling/overfilling the vessel (theta(s) not equal 90 degrees) while keeping the contact line fixed at the brim. Here, we refer to this wetting condition as nearly brimful. Although classic inviscid theories based on Floquet analysis have been reformulated for the case of a pinned contact line (Kidambi, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 724, 2013, pp. 671-694), accounting for (i) viscous dissipation and (ii) static contact angle effects, including meniscus waves, makes such analyses practically intractable and a comprehensive theoretical framework is still lacking. Aiming at filling this gap, in this work we formalize a weakly nonlinear analysis via multiple time scale method capable of predicting the impact of (i) and (ii) on the instability onset of viscous subharmonic standing waves in both brimful and nearly brimful circular cylinders. Notwithstanding that the form of the resulting amplitude equation is in fact analogous to that obtained by symmetry arguments (Douady, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 221, 1990, pp. 383-409), the normal form coefficients are here computed numerically from first principles, thus allowing us to rationalize and systematically quantify the modifications on the Faraday tongues and on the associated bifurcation diagrams induced by the interaction of meniscus and subharmonic parametric waves.

Automated summary

In this study, a weakly nonlinear analysis method was used to successfully predict the impact of viscosity and static contact angle on the instability onset of viscous subharmonic standing waves under different wetting conditions. The interaction between wetting conditions and parametric waves was systematically quantified and explained.