An experimental investigation of the stability of plane Poiseuille flow

1975 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 731-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Nishioka ◽  
S. Iid A ◽  
Y. Ichikawa

Stability experiments were made on plane Poiseuille flow generated in a long channel of a rectangular cross-section with a width-to-depth ratio of 27·4. By reducing the background turbulence down to a level of 0·05 %, we succeeded in maintaining the flow laminar at Reynolds numbers up to 8000, which is much larger than the critical Reynolds number of the linear theory, about 6000. The downstream development of the sinusoidal disturbance introduced by the vibrating ribbon technique was studied in detail at various frequencies in the range of Reynolds number from 3000 to 7500. This paper presents the experimental results and clarifies the linear stability, the nonlinear subcritical instability and the breakdown leading to the transition.

The stability of plane Poiseuille flow in a channel forced by a wavelike motion on one of the channel walls is investigated. The amplitude Є of this forcing is taken to be small. The most dangerous modes of forcing are identified and it is found in general the critical Reynolds number is changed by O (Є) 2 . However, we identify two particular modes of forcing which give rise to decrements of order Є 2/3 and Є in the critical Reynolds number. Some types of forcing are found to generate sub critical stable finite amplitude perturbations to plane Poiseuille flow. This contrasts with the unforced case where the only stable solution is the zero amplitude solution. The forcing also deforms the unstable subcritical limit cycle solution from its usual circular shape into a more complicated shape. This has an effect on the threshold amplitude ideas suggested by, for example, Meksyn & Stuart (1951). It is found that the phase of disturbances must also be considered when finding the amplitude dependent critical Reynolds numbers.


1978 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Davey

The linear stability of Poiseuille flow in an elliptic pipe which is nearly circular is examined by regarding the flow as a perturbation of Poiseuille flow in a circular pipe. We show that the temporal damping rates of non-axisymmetric infinitesimal disturbances which are concentrated near the wall of the pipe are decreased by the ellipticity. In particular we estimate that if the length of the minor axis of the cross-section of the pipe is less than about 96 ½% of that of the major axis then the flow will be unstable and a critical Reynolds number will exist. Also we calculate estimates of the ellipticities which will produce critical Reynolds numbers ranging from 1000 upwards.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hidesada Kanda

Abstract For plane Poiseuille flow, results of previous investigations were studied, focusing on experimental data on the critical Reynolds number, the entrance length, and the transition length. Consequently, concerning the natural transition, it was confirmed from the experimental data that (i) the transition occurs in the entrance region, (ii) the critical Reynolds number increases as the contraction ratio in the inlet section increases, and (iii) the minimum critical Reynolds number is obtained when the contraction ratio is the smallest or one, and there is no-shaped entrance or straight parallel plates. Its value exists in the neighborhood of 1300, based on the channel height and the average velocity. Although, for Hagen-Poiseuille flow, the minimum critical Reynolds number is approximately 2000, based on the pipe diameter and the average velocity, there seems to be no significant difference in the transition from laminar to turbulent flow between Hagen-Poiseuille flow and plane Poiseuille flow.


1968 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed R. Wazzan ◽  
T. Okamura ◽  
A. M. O. Smith

The theory of two-dimensional instability of laminar flow of water over solid surfaces is extended to include the effects of heat transfer. The equation that governs the stability of these flows to Tollmien-Schlichting disturbances is the Orr-Sommerfeld equation “modified” to include the effect of viscosity variation with temperature. Numerical solutions to this equation at high Reynolds numbers are obtained using a new method of integration. The method makes use of the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization technique to obtain linearly independent solutions upon numerically integrating the “modified Orr-Sommerfeld” equation using single precision arithmetic. The method leads to satisfactory answers for Reynolds numbers as high as Rδ* = 100,000. The analysis is applied to the case of flow over both heated and cooled flat plates. The results indicate that heating and cooling of the wall have a large influence on the stability of boundary-layer flow in water. At a free-stream temperature of 60 deg F and wall temperatures of 60, 90, 120, 135, 150, 200, and 300deg F, the critical Reynolds numbers Rδ* are 520, 7200, 15200, 15600, 14800, 10250, and 4600, respectively. At a free-stream temperature of 200F and wall temperature of 60 deg F (cooled case), the critical Reynolds number is 151. Therefore, it is evident that a heated wall has a stabilizing effect, whereas a cooled wall has a destabilizing effect. These stability calculations show that heating increases the critical Reynolds number to a maximum value (Rδ* max = 15,700 at a temperature of TW = 130 deg F) but that further heating decreases the critical Reynolds number. In order to determine the influence of the viscosity derivatives upon the results, the critical Reynolds number for the heated case of T∞ = 40 and TW = 130 deg F was determined using (a) the Orr-Sommerfeld equation and (b) the present governing equation. The resulting critical Reynolds numbers are Rδ* = 140,000 and 16,200, respectively. Therefore, it is concluded that the terms pertaining to the first and second derivatives of the viscosity have a considerable destabilizing influence.


1971 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven A. Orszag

The Orr-Sommerfeld equation is solved numerically using expansions in Chebyshev polynomials and the QR matrix eigenvalue algorithm. It is shown that results of great accuracy are obtained very economically. The method is applied to the stability of plane Poiseuille flow; it is found that the critical Reynolds number is 5772·22. It is explained why expansions in Chebyshev polynomials are better suited to the solution of hydrodynamic stability problems than expansions in other, seemingly more relevant, sets of orthogonal functions.


Author(s):  
A. Inasawa ◽  
K. Toda ◽  
M. Asai

Disturbance growth in the wake of a circular cylinder moving at a constant acceleration is examined experimentally. The cylinder is installed on a carriage moving in the still air. The results show that the critical Reynolds number for the onset of the global instability leading to a self-sustained wake oscillation increases with the magnitude of acceleration, while the Strouhal number of the growing disturbance at the critical Reynolds number is not strongly dependent on the magnitude of acceleration. It is also found that with increasing the acceleration, the Ka´rma´n vortex street remains two-dimensional even at the Reynolds numbers around 200 where the three-dimensional instability occurs to lead to the vortex dislocation in the case of cylinder moving at constant velocity or in the case of cylinder wake in the steady oncoming flow.


1966 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 589-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Turgut Sarpkaya

The stability of fully developed Poiseuille flow pulsating under a harmonically and a nonharmonically varying pressure gradient was studied experimentally. The characteristics of turbulent plugs were determined for both steady and pulsating flow by means of pressure transducers. It was found that (a) for oscillating, stable Poiseuille flow, the phase angles determined experimentally agree well with those determined theoretically; (b) for the same mean pressure gradient, pulsating flow is more stable than the corresponding steady Poiseuille flow; (c) in pulsating flow, the presence of one or more inflection points is necessary but not sufficient for instability; and (d) the curves of the critical Reynolds number versus the relative amplitude of the periodic component of the cross-sectional mean velocity reach their maximum when at least one inflection ring continues to exist a time period 53 percent of the period of oscillation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (31) ◽  
pp. 9518-9523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianchun Wang ◽  
Qianxiao Li ◽  
Weinan E

The stability of the plane Poiseuille flow is analyzed using a thermodynamic formalism by considering the deterministic Navier–Stokes equation with Gaussian random initial data. A unique critical Reynolds number, Rec≈2,332, at which the probability of observing puffs in the solution changes from 0 to 1, is numerically demonstrated to exist in the thermodynamic limit and is found to be independent of the noise amplitude. Using the puff density as the macrostate variable, the free energy of such a system is computed and analyzed. The puff density approaches zero as the critical Reynolds number is approached from above, signaling a continuous transition despite the fact that the bifurcation is subcritical for a finite-sized system. An action function is found for the probability of observing puffs in a small subregion of the flow, and this action function depends only on the Reynolds number. The strategy used here should be applicable to a wide range of other problems exhibiting subcritical instabilities.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sedat Tardu

The electrostatic double layer (EDL) effect on the linear hydrodynamic stability of microchannel flows is investigated. It is shown that the EDL destabilizes the Poiseuille flow considerably. The critical Reynolds number decreases by a factor five when the non-dimensional Debye-Huckel parameter κ is around ten. Thus, the transition may be quite rapid for microchannels of a couple of microns heights in particular when the liquid contains a very small number of ions. The EDL effect disappears quickly for κ⩾150 corresponding typically to channels of heights 400 μm or larger. These results may explain why significantly low critical Reynolds numbers have been encountered in some experiments dealing with microchannel flows.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document