| Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 60, Number 4, November 2002
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 552 - 558 | |
| Section | Electromagnetism, optics, acoustics, heat transfer, classical mechanics, and fluid dynamics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2002-00254-x | |
| Published online | 01 November 2002 | |
On the tip splitting instability - I
Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, CNRS - Av.
Schweitzer, 33600 Pessac, France
Received:
25
March
2002
Accepted:
6
September
2002
The local destabilisation of a Saffman-Taylor viscous finger
occurs by a splitting of its tip and results in the formation of
two branches separated by a fjord. It has been shown recently
that the central line of a fjord follows approximately a curve
normal to successive stable fingers. In this letter, we present
an extensive numerical study of a minimal model of this
instability for fingers growing in a wedge of angle 
.
It is shown that the form of the fjords is mainly a
surface-tension–driven effect. We also infer the existence of a
critical angle 
such that if 
, the symmetric
tip-splitting becomes unstable.
PACS: 47.20.-k – Hydrodynamic stability
© EDP Sciences, 2002
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