Nonlinear wave packets in the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability

Abstract

The instability of two layers of immiscible inviscid and incompressible fluids in relative motion is studied with allowance for small, but finite, disturbances and for spatial as well as temporal development. By using the method of multiple scaling, a generalized formulation of the amplitude equation is obtained, applicable to both stable and marginally unstable regions of parameter space. Of principal concern is the neighbourhood of the critical point for instability, where weakly nonlinear solutions can be found for arbitrary initial conditions. Among the analytical results, it is shown that (1) the nonlinear effects can be stabilizing or destabilizing depending on the density ratio, (2) the existence of purely spatial instability depends upon the frame of reference, the density ratio, and whether the nonlinear effects are stabilizing, (3) exact nonlinear solutions of the amplitude equation exist representing modulations of permanent form travelling faster than the signal velocity of the linear equation (in particular, a solution is found that represents a solitary wave packet), and (4) the linear solution to the impulsive initial value problem has 'fronts’ which travel with the two (multiple) values of the group velocity (the packet as a whole moves with the mean of the two values). Numerical solutions of the amplitude equation (a nonlinear, unstable Klein-Gordon equation) are also presented for the case of nonlinear stabilization. These show that the development of a localized disturbance, in one or two dimensions, is highly dependent on the precise form of the initial conditions, even when the initial amplitude is very small. The exact solutions mentioned above play an important role in this development. The numerical experiments also show that the familiar uniform solution, an oscillatory function of time only, is unstable to spatial modulation if the amplitude of oscillation is large enough.