Rayleigh-Taylor instability with descending front

Figure 3. Rayleigh-Taylor instability with descending front of butyl acrylate polymerization. Although the polymer product is hot (> 200 °C) it still is about 20% more dense than the monomer below it.

Figure 4. Rayleigh-Taylor instability with a descending front of butyl acrylate...

Garbey et al. also predicted that for a descending liquid/liquid front, an instability could arise even though the configuration would be stable for unreactive fluids (29-31). This prediction has yet to be experimentally verified because liquid/liquid frontal polymerization exhibits the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. A thermal frontal system with a product that is less dense than the reactant is required. 

Descending fronts with thermosets are generally immune to convective instabilities but thermoplastics exhibit the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (Figure 3)... 

Frontal polymerization can be achieved with a variety of monomers and has been studied with thermosets and thermoplastics. Examples include n-butyl acrylate, benzyl acrylate, styrene, dodecyl acrylate and hexyl acrylate. If the front is ascending, the monomer inmiediately above the front is lower in density because of the temperature gradient than the bulk monomer and so simple convection can occur for a thermoset (/P) or a thermoplastic. 20) A descending front with a thermoset is stable but a thermoplastic is unstable because even though the polymer is very hot, it is more dense than the unreacted monomer. This leads to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. 16,21)... 

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