The formation of vortices from a surface of discontinuity

Abstract Helmholtz was the first to remark on the instability of those “liquid surfaces” which separate portions of fluid moving with different velocities, and Kelvin, in investigating the influence of wind on waves in water, supposed frictionless, has discussed the conditions under which a plane surface of water becomes unstable. Adopting Kelvin’s method, Rayleigh investigated the instability of a surface of discontinuity. A clear and easily accessible rendering of the discussion is given by Lamb. The above investigations are conducted upon the well-known principle of “small oscillations”—there is a basic steady motion, upon which is superposed a flow, the squares of whose components of velocity can be neglected. This method has the advantage of making the equations of motion linear. If by this method the flow is found to be stable, the equations of motion give the subsequent history of the system, for the small oscillations about the steady state always remain “small.” If, however, the method indicates that the system is unstable, that is, if the deviations from the steady state increase exponentially with the time, the assumption of small motions cannot, after an appropriate interval of time, be applied to the case under consideration, and the equations of motion, in their approximate form, no longer give a picture of the flow. For this reason, which is well known, the investigations of Rayleigh only prove the existence of instability during the initial stages of the motion. It is the object of this note to investigate the form assumed by the surface of discontinuity when the displacements and velocities are no longer small.