The Rayleigh–Taylor instability, or RT instability (after Lord Rayleigh and G. I. Taylor), is an instability of an interface between two fluids of different densities which occurs when the lighter fluid is pushing the heavier fluid. Examples include the behavior of water suspended above oil in the gravity of Earth, mushroom clouds like those from volcanic eruptions and atmospheric nuclear explosions, supernova explosions in which expanding core gas is accelerated into denser shell gas, merging binary quantum fluids in metastable configuration, instabilities in plasma fusion reactors and inertial confinement fusion.
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👉 Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the context of Plateau–Rayleigh instability
In fluid dynamics, the Plateau–Rayleigh instability, often just called the Rayleigh instability, explains why and how a falling stream of fluid breaks up into smaller packets with the same total volume but less surface area per droplet. It is related to the Rayleigh–Taylor instability and is part of a greater branch of fluid dynamics concerned with fluid thread breakup. This fluid instability is exploited in the design of a particular type of ink jet technology whereby a jet of liquid is perturbed into a steady stream of droplets.
The driving force of the Plateau–Rayleigh instability is that liquids, by virtue of their surface tensions, tend to minimize their surface area. A considerable amount of work has been done recently on the final pinching profile by attacking it with self-similar solutions.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Rayleigh–Taylor instability
- 👉 Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the context of Plateau–Rayleigh instability
- Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the context of Diapir
- Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the context of Mushroom cloud
- Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the context of Lord Rayleigh
- Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the context of Scientific visualization
Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the context of Diapir
A diapir (/ˈdaɪ.əpɪər/; from French diapir [djapiʁ], from Ancient Greek διαπειραίνω (diapeiraínō) 'to pierce through') is a type of intrusion in which a more mobile and ductilely deformable material is forced into brittle overlying rocks. Depending on the tectonic environment, diapirs can range from idealized mushroom-shaped Rayleigh–Taylor instability structures in regions with low tectonic stress such as in the Gulf of Mexico to narrow dikes of material that move along tectonically induced fractures in surrounding rock.
The term was introduced by Romanian geologist Ludovic Mrazek, who was the first to understand the principle of salt tectonics and plasticity. The term diapir may be applied to igneous intrusions, but it is more commonly applied to non-igneous, relatively cold materials, such as salt domes and mud diapirs. If a salt diapir reaches the surface, it can flow because salt becomes ductile with a small amount of moisture, forming a salt glacier.
Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the context of Mushroom cloud
A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke, and usually condensed water vapour resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently energetic detonation or deflagration will produce a similar effect. They can be caused by powerful conventional weapons, including large thermobaric weapons. Some volcanic eruptions and impact events can produce natural mushroom clouds.
Mushroom clouds result from the sudden formation of a large volume of lower-density gases at any altitude, causing a Rayleigh–Taylor instability. The buoyant mass of gas rises rapidly, resulting in turbulent vortices curling downward around its edges, forming a temporary vortex ring that draws up a central column, possibly with smoke, debris, condensed water vapor, or a combination of these, to form the "mushroom stem". The mass of gas plus entrained moist air eventually reaches an altitude where it is no longer of lower density than the surrounding air; at this point, it disperses, drifting back down, which results in fallout following a nuclear blast. The stabilization altitude depends strongly on the profiles of the temperature, dew point, and wind shear in the air at and above the starting altitude.
Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the context of Lord Rayleigh
John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (/ˈreɪli/ RAY-lee; 12 November 1842 – 30 June 1919), was a British physicist and hereditary peer who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1904 for his discovery of argon.
Rayleigh provided the first theoretical treatment of the elastic scattering of light by particles much smaller than the light's wavelength, a phenomenon now known as Rayleigh scattering, which notably explains why the sky is blue. He studied and described transverse surface waves in solids, now known as Rayleigh waves. He contributed extensively to fluid dynamics, with concepts such as the Rayleigh number (a dimensionless number associated with natural convection), Rayleigh flow, the Rayleigh–Taylor instability, and Rayleigh's criterion for the stability of Taylor–Couette flow.
Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the context of Scientific visualization
Scientific visualization (also spelled scientific visualisation) is an interdisciplinary branch of science concerned with the visualization of scientific phenomena. It is also considered a subset of computer graphics, a branch of computer science. The purpose of scientific visualization is to graphically illustrate scientific data to enable scientists to understand, illustrate, and glean insight from their data. Research into how people read and misread various types of visualizations is helping to determine what types and features of visualizations are most understandable and effective in conveying information.