| Abstract: | The first studies on the stability of nonstationary motions of a liquid with a free boundary were published relatively recently [1–4]. Investigations were conducted concerning the stability of flow in a spherical cavity [1, 2], a spherical shell [3], a strip, and an annulus of an ideal liquid. In these studies both the fundamental motion and the perturbed motion were assumed to be potential flow. Changing to Lagrangian coordinates considerably simplified the solution of the problem. Ovsyannikov [5], using Lagrangian coordinates, obtained equations for small potential perturbations of an arbitrary potential flow. The resulting equations were used for solving typical examples which showed the degree of difficulty involved in the investigation of the stability of nonstationary motions [5–8]. In all of these studies the stability was characterized by the deviation of the free boundary from its unperturbed state, i.e., by the normal component of the perturbation vector. In the present study we obtain general equations for small perturbations of the nonstationary flow of a liquid with a free boundary in Lagrangian coordinates. We find a simple expression for the normal component of the perturbation vector. In the case of potential mass forces the resulting system reduces to a single equation for some scalar function with an evolutionary condition on the free boundary. We prove an existence and uniqueness theorem for the solution, and, in particular, we answer the question of whether the linear problem concerning small potential perturbations which was formulated in [5] is correct. We investigate two examples for stability: a) the stretching of a strip and b) the compression of a circular cylinder with the condition that the initial perturbation is not of potential type. |
