Experimental study of the Faraday instability

Abstract

An experimental study of surface waves parametrically excited by vertical vibrations is presented. The shape of the eigenmodes in a closed vessel, and the importance of the free-surface boundary conditions, are discussed. Stability boundaries, wave amplitude, and perturbation characteristic time of decay are measured and found to be in agreement with an amplitude equation derived by symmetry. The measurement of the amplitude equation coefficients explains why the observed transition is always supercritical, and shows the effect of the edge constraint on the dissipation and eigen frequency of the various modes. The fluid surface tension is obtained from the dispersion relation measurement. Several visualization methods in large-aspect-ratio cells are presented.