Regime transitions in the viscous catenary

Department of Physics, Pomona College - 610 N. College Ave., Claremont CA 91711, USA

Corresponding author: cmitescu@pomona.edu

Received: 7 December 2008
Accepted: 6 July 2009

Abstract

We present studies of the transition between two types of filament evolution in the viscous catenary. In particular we examine the dependence of the observed behavior on the viscosity of the fluid, the initial radius of filament created, and the total length of the fluid. The kinematic viscosity is varied over two orders of magnitude, the filament radius by one order of magnitude, and the filament length by a factor of 3. We observe a clear transition as the so-called catenary number, dependent on the filament radius and length, increases past a certain value, but with no dependence on the viscosity of the fluid. This is a confirmation of theoretical predictions over a significantly greater range of viscosities than previous experiments.