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Dynamics of the Faraday Instability in a Small Cylinder

Vertical oscillation of a fluid interface above a critical amplitude excites the Faraday instability, typically manifesting itself as a standing wave pattern. Fundamentally, the phenomenon is an example of parametric resonance. At high frequencies, the wavelength is small and the pattern selection process is highly nonlinear. We excite the instability with low frequencies, where the wavelength is large, and the form is highly influenced by the container geometry. In this regime, the cell modes are easily excited on an individual basis and the observed waves resemble the forms predicted from linear theory. In our video we highlight basic spatial and temporal dynamics of this regime. This fluid dynamics video is submitted to the APS DFD Gallery of Fluid Motion 2013, part of the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Societys Division of Fluid Dynamics (24-26 November, Pittsburgh, PA, USA).