2013/08/03 by Amey Joshi, Joshi, Amey
Engineering · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1308.0706
openalex publication_date 2013/08/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this paper I analyze the onset of Rayleigh-Taylor instability between two linear viscoelastic fluids assuming that the perturbations at the interface are small. In the first half, the paper analyzes a stratified viscoelastic fluid in which I prove that the perturbations rise or fall exponentially without oscillating. The second half of the paper examines the effect of electric and magnetic fields on viscoelastic fluids. I show that it is possible to choose electric or magnetic field gradient such that the effective acceleration due to gravity is zero. If a heavy Newtonian fluid rests on top of a lighter Newtonian fluid such a choice of field gradient would have rendered the arrangement stable. If the fluids are viscoelastic, I show that a similar arrangement is unstable.