The initial development of a jet caused by fluid, body and free-surface interaction. Part 2. An impulsively moved plate

Abstract

The free-surface deformation and flow field caused by the impulsive horizontal motion of a rigid vertical plate into a horizontal strip of inviscid incompressible fluid, initially at rest, is studied in the small time limit using the method of matched asymptotic expansions. It is found that three different asymptotic regions are necessary to describe the flow. There is a main, O(1) sized, outer region in which the flow is singular at the point where the free surface meets the plate. This leads to an inner region, centred on the point where the free surface initially meets the plate, with size of O(-t log t). To resolve the singularities that arise in this inner region, it is necessary to analyse further the flow in an inner-inner region, with size of O(t), again centred upon the wetting point of the nascent rising jet. The solutions of the boundary value problems in the two largest regions are obtained analytically. The solution of the parameter-free nonlinear boundary value problem that arises in the inner-inner region is obtained numerically.