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Updated: May 26, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Instability of the origami of a ferrofluid drop in a magnetic field
Timothée Jamin1, Charlotte Py, Eric Falcon
1Univ Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, MSC, UMR CNRS, France.
Abstract:
Capillary origami is the wrapping of a usual fluid drop by a planar elastic membrane due to the interplay between capillary and elastic forces. Here, we use a drop of magnetic fluid whose shape is known to strongly depend on an applied magnetic field. We study the quasistatic and dynamical behaviors of such a magnetic capillary origami. We report the observation of an overturning instability that the origami undergoes at a critical magnetic field. This instability is triggered by an interplay between magnetic and gravitational energies in agreement with the theory presented here. Additional effects of elasticity and capillarity on this instability are also discussed.
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