The Rayleigh-Plateau Instability on a Fiber Revisited - Influence of the Hydrodynamic Boundary Condition

The Rayleigh-Plateau Instability (RPI) of a liquid column underlies a variety of hydrodynamic phenomena that can be observed in everyday life. In the classical case of a free liquid column, linear perturbation theory predicts characteristic rise-times and wavelengths. However, the description of a liquid layer on a fiber requires the consideration of the solid/liquid interface in addition to the free interface. In this study, we revisit the RPI of a viscous liquid layer on a solid fiber by varying the hydrodynamic boundary condition at the fiber/liquid interface. The rise of the amplitudes of the surface undulations is precisely tracked and the growth rate of the instability is determined for the different slip boundary conditions and compared to the theoretical models.