Shear instabilities induced by the relaxation of laminar boundary layer at the free surface of a high speed liquid jet are investigated experimentally. Physical insights into these instabilities and the resulting capillary wave growth are gained by performing non-intrusive measurements of flow structure in the direct vicinity of the surface. The experimental results are a combination of surface visualization, planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF), particle image velocimetry (PIV), and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV). They suggest that 2D span wise vortices in the shear layer play a major role in these instabilities by triggering 2D waves on the free surface as predicted by linear stability analysis. These vortices, however, are found to travel at a different speed than the capillary waves they initially created resulting in interference with the waves and wave growth. A new experimental facility was bui it consists of a 20.3×146.mm rectangular water wall jet with Reynolds number based on channel depth between 3.13 × 10~4 to 1.65 ×10~5 and 115. to 264. based on boundary layer momentum thickness.
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