Morphology of a stream flowing down an inclined plane. Part 2. Meandering

• DOI: 10.1017/s0022112008002000
• Publication Date: 2008-06-30T09:06:25Z
• Authors: B. BIRNIR; K. MERTENS; V. PUTKARADZE; P. VOROBIEFF
• Keywords: Stream function; Inclined plane; Wavenumber; Stream power

A stream of fluid flowing down a partially wetting inclined plane usually meanders, unless the volume flow rate is maintained at highly constant value. Here we investigate whether meandering this an inherent instability. In our experiment, eliminate on several substrates by reducing perturbations entering flow. By re-introducing controlled fluctuations, show that they are responsible for onset meandering. We derive theoretical model shape, %from first principles which includes dynamics and forcing external noise. The deviation h ( x ) from straight linear )=0 shows considerable variability as function downstream distance . However, ensemble average shapes acquired different times, power spectrum S k wavenumber has power-law scaling ~ 5/2 Moreover, area swept grows 1.75