Hydrodynamic stability of a rotating liner

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Abstract
The Rayleigh-Taylor instability is investigated for a nonsteady basic state. A model of a magnetically imploded cylindrical metallic liner compressing an axial magnetic field is constructed and used as the basis of a linear stability analysis. The liner, idealized to be without energy loss mechanisms, can be given an initial rotation about its axis. Analytic and numerical techniques are used to study the stability of flutelike (∼eimφ) irrotational perturbations about this state. Stability is quantified in terms of the tendency of the liner to disrupt or to encroach toward the axis, and is determined as a function of mode number m, the form of initial disturbance, liner thickness and the amount of rotation. It is shown that thickening the liner tends to stabilize against both encroachment and disruption, while increasing rotational velocity tends to stabilize against encroachment. Implications for experimental designs are discussed, in particular for experiments with deep compressions (large ratio of initial to final liner radius) of possible interest in the Linus concept of a pulsed power device.