The Linear Stability of Liquid Film with Oscillatory Gas Velocity

The present study theoretically investigated the linear instability of a liquid film sheared by gas flow under acoustic oscillations. In this work, the velocity oscillations of the gas are used to approximately characterize the acoustic oscillations, and the ratio of the conduction heat flux to the evaporation heat flux is used to characterize the heat and mass transfer. Considering the much stronger impact of the heat convection than the heat conduction in practical cases, a correction factor is introduced to satisfy the heat flux ratio within a reasonable range. Because of the oscillatory velocity of gas, several unstable regions, involving the KHI region and the parametric instability (PI) region, appear. The impact of the velocity oscillations on the KHI is related to the forcing frequency. Increasing the oscillatory velocity amplitude promotes the KHI when the forcing frequency is large, while the KHI is restrained with the increase in the oscillatory velocity amplitude when the forcing frequency is small. Since the viscous dissipation is enhanced when the forcing oscillations frequency increases, the PI is suppressed. In addition, when the surface tension decreases, the interfacial instability is also promoted. Increasing the gas–liquid density ratio can destabilize the surface. However, the impact of the heat and mass transfer on the interfacial instability is neglectable as the gas–liquid density ratio is large. Furthermore, the heat and mass transfer have a promoting impact on the PI and KHI, while their destabilizing effect on the indentation between unstable regions is greater. It is significant to note that the location of the maximum growth rate would be in the most unstable region.