Atwood number

Atwood number
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Atwood_number".

The Atwood number is a dimensionless number in fluid dynamics used in the study of hydrodynamic instabilities in density stratified flows. It is a dimensionless density ratio defined as

$A = \frac{\rho_1 - \rho_2} {\rho_1 + \rho_2}$

where

ρ 1

= density of heavier fluid

ρ 2

= density of lighter fluid

Field of application

Atwood number is an important parameter in the study of Rayleigh–Taylor instability and Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. In Rayleigh–Taylor instability, the penetration distance of heavy fluid bubbles into the light fluid is a function of acceleration time scale, $A g t 2$ ^[1] where g is the gravitational acceleration and t is the time.

References

^ Glimm, J., Grove, J. W., Li, X.-L., Oh, W., and Sharp, D. H., A critical analysis of Rayleigh–Taylor growth rates, J. Comput. Phys., 169, 652-677 (2001).

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Dimensionless numbers in fluid dynamics

Archimedes • Atwood • Bagnold • Biot • Bond • Brinkman • Capillary • Cauchy • Damköhler • Dean • Deborah • Eckert • Ekman • Eötvös • Euler • Froude • Galilei • Graetz • Grashof • ‎Görtler • Hagen • Knudsen • Laplace • Lewis • Mach • Magnetic Reynolds • Marangoni • Morton • Nusselt • Ohnesorge • Péclet • Prandtl • Rayleigh • Reynolds • Richardson • Roshko • Rossby • Rouse • Ruark • Schmidt • Sherwood • Stanton • Stokes • Strouhal • Suratman • Taylor • Ursell • Weber • Weissenberg • Womersley

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