Passive Stabilization of Capillary Bridges in Air with Acoustic Radiation Pressure

Long liquid capillary bridges are normally unstable because of the growth of a mode where one end becomes slender while the other becomes rotund. This Rayleigh-Plateau instability was suppressed for weightless bridges on NASA's KC-135 aircraft by placing the bridge in an acoustic standing wave. With an appropriate acoustic wavelength and amplitude the radiation pressure automatically squeezes more on the rotund portion of the bridge so as to suppress the growth of the relevant capillary mode. Stabilization is a natural consequence of the interaction with the steady sound field.