Paper 4, Section II, E

Fluid Dynamics II
Part II, 2015

A stationary inviscid fluid of thickness hh and density ρ\rho is located below a free surface at y=hy=h and above a deep layer of inviscid fluid of the same density in y<0y<0 flowing with uniform velocity U>0U>0 in the ex\mathbf{e}_{x} direction. The base velocity profile is thus

u=U,y<0;u=0,0<y<hu=U, y<0 ; \quad u=0,0<y<h

while the free surface at y=hy=h is maintained flat by gravity.

By considering small perturbations of the vortex sheet at y=0y=0 of the form η=η0eikx+σt,k>0\eta=\eta_{0} e^{i k x+\sigma t}, k>0, calculate the dispersion relationship between kk and σ\sigma in the irrotational limit. By explicitly deriving that

Re(σ)=±tanh(hk)1+tanh(hk)Uk\operatorname{Re}(\sigma)=\pm \frac{\sqrt{\tanh (h k)}}{1+\tanh (h k)} U k

deduce that the vortex sheet is unstable at all wavelengths. Show that the growth rates of the unstable modes are approximately Uk/2U k / 2 when hk1h k \gg 1 and UkhkU k \sqrt{h k} when hk1h k \ll 1.