Measurements of surface-wave damping in a container

For surface waves in brimful right circular cylinders with clean interfaces and pinned contact lines, damping rates and frequencies are measured for t he six lowest frequency surface-wave modes over a two-decade range of the i nverse Reynolds number C. Asymptotic calculations that include viscous diss ipation in both Stokes boundary layers and the bulk show good agreement wit h measurements for small C; the theory typically overpredicts the measured damping rates for C large. Our measurements suggest interfacial contaminati on may account for a previously reported discrepancy between theory and exp eriment. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-6631(00)00702-9].