Stability of liquid bridges subject to an eccentric rotation

A cylindrical liquid bridge supported between two circular-shaped disks in isorotation is considered. The effect of an offset between the rotation axis and the axis of the two supporting disks (eccentricity) on the stability of the static liquid bridge is investigated. A numerical method is used to find stable and unstable shapes and to determine the stability limit for different values of eccentricity. The calculated stability limits are compared with analytical results, recovering the same behavior. Numerical results have been also compared with the results of an experiment aboard TEXUS-23, recovering the stability limit and the equilibrium shapes.