This paper is concerned with the stability of steady inviscid flows with closed streamlines. In increasing order of complexity we look at two-dimensional planar flows, poloidal (r, z) flows, and swirling recirculating flows. In each case we examine the relationship between Arnol’d's variational approach to stability, Moffatt's magnetic relaxation technique, and a more recent relaxation procedure developed by Valliset al.We start with two-dimensional (x, y) flows. Here we show that Moffatt's relaxation procedure will, under a wide range of circumstances, produce Euler flows which are stable. The physical reasons for this are discussed in the context of the well-known membrane analogy. We also show that there is a close relationship between Hamilton's principle and magnetic relaxation. Next, we examine poloidal flows. Here we find that, by and large, our planar results also hold true for axisymmetric flows. In particular, magnetic relaxation once again provides stable Euler flows. Finally, we consider swirling recirculating flows. It transpires that the introduction of swirl has a profound effect on stability. In particular, the flows produced by magnetic relaxation are no longer stable. Indeed, we show that all swirling recirculating Euler flows are potentially unstable to the extent that they fail to satisfy Arnol’d's stability criterion. This is, perhaps, not surprising, as all swirling recirculating flows include regions where the angular momentum decreases with radius and we would intuitively expect such flows to be prone to a centrifugal instability. The paper concludes with a discussion of marginally unstable modes in swirling flows. In particular, we examine the extent to which Rayleigh's original ideas on stability may be generalized, through the use of the Routhian, to include flows with a non-zero recirculation.
Planar flows past thin multi-blade configurations