Stability of liquid sheet edges

Accelerating edges of thin liquid sheets are ubiquitous and are known to experience a longitudinal (along-the-edge) instability, which often leads to their break-up and atomization. The fundamental physical mechanisms of this instability are studied analytically in the quasisteady regime, which admits a concise modeling. It is discovered that the classical Rayleigh-Taylor mechanism is substantially modified which leads to a stability picture different from that for flat interfaces, in part due to an interplay with Rayleigh-Plateau mechanisms. In particular, as the Bond number increases, first, only one critical wavenumber is excited, but for higher values of the Bond number several critical wavenumbers can coexist with the same growth rates. This allows for the transition from the regular picture, in which one wavelength sets the pattern, to the frustrated picture, in which a few wavenumbers compete with each other. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3474640]