STABILITY OF THIN LIQUID SHEET FLOWS

A two-dimensional, linear stability analysis of a thin nonplanar liqui d sheet flow in vacuum is carried out. A sheet now created by a narrow slit of W and tau attains a nonplanar cross section as a consequence of cylinders forming on the sheet edge under the influence of surface tension forces, The region where these edge cylinders join the sheet i s one of high curvature, and this is found to be the location where in stability is most likely to occur, The sheet now is found to be unstab le, but with low growth rates for symmetric wave disturbances and high growth rates for antisymmetric disturbances, By combining the symmetr ic and antisymmetric disturbance modes, a wide range of stability char acteristics is obtained, The product of unstable growth rate and now t ime is proportional to the width-to-thickness ratio of the slit genera ting the sheet. Three-dimensional effects can alter these results, par ticularly when the sheet length-to-width ratio is not much greater tha n unity.