Nonlinear development of capillary waves in a viscous liquid jet

The one-dimensional approximate equations describing the dynamics of a Newtonian viscous fluid are used to analyze the nonlinear development of capillary waves in a jet. It is shown that the size of satellite droplets resulting from a nonuniform jet breakup decreases with the Reynolds number at a constant wavenumber. The satellite-droplet formation ceases at a certain value of the Reynolds number, which depends on the wavenumber and initial perturbation amplitude. (C) 2000 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica".