Plateau Rayleigh instability

The Plateau-Rayleigh instability is a capillary force- driven instability of a cylindrical body , which in the course of its evolution breaks down by itself into a chain of particles. The particle distance is not arbitrary, but exceeds a critical value, thereby reducing the free energy ( surface tension ) of the system (driving force). This phenomenon was first described by JAF Plateau . Lord Rayleighwas the first to publish a comprehensive mathematical derivation. Although disintegrating liquid jets are the best-known application of Plateau-Rayleigh instability, it also occurs in nanoscale solid systems (large surface-to-volume ratio).

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• JAF plateau. Statique experimentale et theorique des liquides soumis aux seules molecular forces. (Gauthiers-Villars, Paris, 1873).
• JWS Rayleigh. On the Instability of Jets. Proc. London Math. Soc. 10 (1878) 4.
• FA Nichols & WW Mullins. Surface- (Interface-) and Volume-Diffusion Contributions to Morphological Changes Driven by Capillarity. Trans. Metal. Soc. AIME 233 (1965) 1840.
• S. Chandrasekhar. Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability. (Dover, New York, 1981).
• AM Glaeser. Model Studies of Rayleigh Instabilities via Microdesigned Interfaces. Interface Sci. 9 (2001) 65.
• ME Toimil-Molares, AG Balogh, TW Cornelius, R. Neumann & C. Trautmann. Fragmentation of nanowires driven by Rayleigh instability. Appl. Phys. Lett. 85 (2004) 5337.

Web links

• Plateau Rayleigh instability of a solid nanoscale cylinder ("nanowire"); simulates kinetic Monte Carlo method using a 3D grid .