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Equilibrium conditions for the floating of multiple interfacial objects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2006

DOMINIC VELLA ,
PAUL D. METCALFE  and
ROBERT J. WHITTAKER
DOMINIC VELLA
Affiliation:
Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK
PAUL D. METCALFE
Affiliation:
Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK
ROBERT J. WHITTAKER
Affiliation:
Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK
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Abstract

We study the effect of interactions between objects floating at fluid interfaces, for the case in which the objects are primarily supported by surface tension. We give conditions on the density and size of these objects for equilibrium to be possible and show that two objects that float when well-separated may sink as the separation between them is decreased. Finally, we examine the equilbrium of a raft of strips floating at an interface, and find that rafts of sufficiently low density may have infinite spatial extent, but that above a critical raft density, all rafts sink if they are sufficiently large. We compare our numerical and asymptotic results with some simple table-top experiments, and find good quantitative agreement.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 549 , 25 February 2006 , pp. 215 - 224
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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