Stability of a Column of Rotating Viscous Liquid

Abstract

ABSTRACTA long column of viscous liquid of radius a and uniform density p is rotating about its axis with angular velocity ω. It is shown that this motion is stable to plane perturbations of wave number 8 provided that the surface tension T satisfies . This critical value is higher than that required for stability of the similar motion of a nonviscous liquid, but is otherwise independent of the coefficient of viscosity. The rate of development of instability when T is less than the critical value is also studied. Some numerical results are given.The condition has recently been obtained by Hocking (2) for the special cases of very high and very low Reynolds numbers.