Theoretical and experimental investigation of water sheet jets under forced vibration

Experiments performed on vertical water sheet jets under forced vibration to simulate the liquid lithium waterfall are reported. The (1) nozzle forcing amplitude (A sub 0, (2) forcing frequency (f), (3) initial jet velocity (U sub 0), (4) initial jet thickness (b sub 0), and (5) ambient density (rho sub a) dependence on the wave amplitude growth was investigated. Nonlinear temporal stability theories describe the wave envelope amplitudes. The saturation (maximum) amplitudes are accurately predicted by the nonlinear theories. The linear temporal theory describes the wave envelope amplitudes in the linear regime were the sinsuoidal waveform is evident, however, the linear theory does not predict the saturation amplitude.