Schmid, Peter J.; Henningson, Dan S. On the stability of a falling liquid curtain. (English) Zbl 1015.76027 J. Fluid Mech. 463, 163-171 (2002). Summary: We investigate the stability of a falling liquid curtain. The sheet of liquid is assumed to be two-dimensional, driven by gravity and influenced by a compressible cushion of air enclosed on one side of the curtain. The linear stability problem is formulated in the form of integro-differential eigenvalue problem. Although experimental efforts have consistently reported a peak in the low-frequency range of the spectrum, the linear stability results do not show instabilities at these frequencies. However, a multimodal approach combined with a projection onto low-frequency modes reveals a dominant and robust instability feature that is in good agreement with experimental measurements. This instability manifests itself as a wave packet, consisting of a linear superposition of linear global modes, that travels down the curtain and causes a strong pressure signal in the enclosed air cushion. Cited in 15 Documents MSC: 76E17 Interfacial stability and instability in hydrodynamic stability Keywords:falling liquid curtain; linear stability; integro-differential eigenvalue problem; multimodal approach; projection; low-frequency modes; wave packet PDFBibTeX XMLCite \textit{P. J. Schmid} and \textit{D. S. Henningson}, J. Fluid Mech. 463, 163--171 (2002; Zbl 1015.76027) Full Text: DOI