Similarity solutions for breakup of jets of power law fluids

We compute similarity solutions for the breakup of a jet of a power law liquid surrounded by a vacuum. As is known from the Newtonian case, such similarity solutions are fundamentally different depending on whether creeping flow or flow with inertia is considered. We shall investigate both cases. For flow with inertia, we start with Eggers' solution for the Newtonian case, and we continue it to other values of the power law exponent. The jet profile corresponding to Eggers' solution is highly asymmmetric. We find that the degree of asymmetry decreases as we deviate from the Newtonian case in either direction. For small as well as for large values of the power law exponent, we find new branches of symmetric solutions. These branches establish a connection between the similarity solutions with and without inertia. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.