The dynamics of a moving sheet of liquid, part II: experiments

The transient response of a planar liquid sheet, subjected to an acceleration in a direction normal to its plane of flow is investigated both experimentally and numerically, for various acceleration trajectories. Experiments were performed by video recording the sheet during acceleration, and measuring its deflection from the captured frames. Experimental data shows a very weak dependence of the sheet's response's settling time on the acceleration trajectory parameters. Based on the equations of motion derived in part I, a computational model is developed to simulate the transient response. Preliminary computations neglect the influence of air surrounding the sheet, and yield only qualitative agreement with experiments. The air, trapped between sheet and shields, is assumed to exert a damping influence on the sheet's response. The computational model is modified by introducing a nonlinear damping element, which is empirically identified. Solutions of this extended model show improved agreement with experiments.