The break-up of laminar liquid jets

Abstract

A number of experiments were performed with water jets discharging into air to determine the effect of the initial velocity profile on the contiguous length of the water stream. This investigation was the consequence of noting that the usual analyses of the stability of such jets assumes an initially constant axial velocity distribution. The results show that the disturbance growth rate for an initially parabolic axial velocity profile is considerably less than that for a nearly uniform profile. This result differs from some other work that concluded the parabolic profile to be the more unstable. The results of the experiments are supported, in part, by an asymptotic analysis of the flow.