Discrete Self-Similarity in Interfacial Hydrodynamics and the Formation of Iterated Structures
Abstract
The formation of iterated structures, such as satellite and subsatellite drops, filaments, and bubbles, is a common feature in interfacial hydrodynamics. Here we undertake a computational and theoretical study of their origin in the case of thin films of viscous fluids that are destabilized by long-range molecular or other forces. We demonstrate that iterated structures appear as a consequence of discrete self-similarity, where certain patterns repeat themselves, subject to rescaling, periodically in a logarithmic time scale. The result is an infinite sequence of ridges and filaments with similarity properties. The character of these discretely self-similar solutions as the result of a Hopf bifurcation from ordinarily self-similar solutions is also described.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- January 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.034505
- Bibcode:
- 2018PhRvL.120c4505D