DOI: 10.1051/jp2:1997189
J. Phys. II France 7 (1997) 1331-1335
Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability of Langmuir Monolayers
Shigeyuki Komura1 and Takahiro Iwayama21 Department of Mechanical System Engineering, Faculty of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Iizuka 820, Japan
2 Department of Control Engineering and Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Iizuka 820, Japan
(Received 21 April 1997, revised 9 June 1997, accepted 24 July 1997)
Abstract
We discuss the possibility of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of a Langmuir monolayer. Even for a positive surface tension, this
instability is expected to occur above a critical value of the velocity of the upper air relative to the water. This is in
contrast to the buckling transition which occurs for a negative surface tension.
© Les Editions de Physique 1997