scholarly journals On the linear stability of compressible plane Couette flow

1994 ◽  
Vol 258 ◽  
pp. 131-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter W. Duck ◽  
Gordon Erlebacher ◽  
M. Yousuff Hussaini
Keyword(s):  
Linear Stability ◽  
Couette Flow ◽  
Small Amplitude ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Inviscid Limit ◽  
Plane Couette Flow ◽  
Moving Wall ◽  
Type Boundary ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Radiation Type

The linear stability of compressible plane Couette flow is investigated. The appropriate basic velocity and temperature distributions are perturbed by a small-amplitude normal-mode disturbance. The full small-amplitude disturbance equations are solved numerically at finite Reynolds numbers, and the inviscid limit of these equations is then investigated in some detail. It is found that instabilities can occur, although the corresponding growth rates are often quite small; the stability characteristics of the flow are quite different from unbounded flows. The effects of viscosity are also calculated, asymptotically, and shown to have a stabilizing role in all the cases investigated. Exceptional regimes to the problem occur when the wave speed of the disturbances approaches the velocity of either of the walls, and these regimes are also analysed in some detail. Finally, the effect of imposing radiation-type boundary conditions on the upper (moving) wall (in place of impermeability) is investigated, and shown to yield results common to both bounded and unbounded flows.

Tertiary solutions and their stability in rotating plane Couette flow

1998 ◽  
Vol 358 ◽  
pp. 357-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. NAGATA
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Couette Flow ◽  
Stability Boundary ◽  
Streamwise Vortex ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Plane Couette Flow ◽  
Streamwise Direction ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Oscillatory Instabilities

The stability of nonlinear tertiary solutions in rotating plane Couette flow is examined numerically. It is found that the tertiary flows, which bifurcate from two-dimensional streamwise vortex flows, are stable within a certain range of the rotation rate when the Reynolds number is relatively small. The stability boundary is determined by perturbations which are subharmonic in the streamwise direction. As the Reynolds number is increased, the rotation range for the stable tertiary motions is destroyed gradually by oscillatory instabilities. We expect that the tertiary flow is overtaken by time-dependent motions for large Reynolds numbers. The results are compared with the recent experimental observation by Tillmark & Alfredsson (1996).

On the behaviour of small disturbances in plane Couette flow with a temperature gradient

1965 ◽  
Vol 286 (1404) ◽  
pp. 117-128 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Rayleigh Number ◽  
Couette Flow ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Neutral Stability ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Plane Couette Flow ◽  
Infinitesimal Disturbance ◽  
Prandtl Numbers ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Small Disturbances

The stability of plane Couette flow with a heated lower plate is considered with respect to a two-dimensional infinitesimal disturbance. The eigenvalues are found with the aid of a digital computer as the latent roots of a matrix. Neutral stability curves for various Prandtl numbers at Reynolds numbers up to 150 are obtained by a second method. It is found that the principle of the exchange of stabilities does not hold for this problem. With the aid of Squire’s transformation the conclusion is drawn that all fluids will become unstable at the same value of the Rayleigh number irrespective of whether shear is present or not.

On the stability of viscous plane Couette flow

1963 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 623-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Deardorff
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Couette Flow ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Plane Couette Flow ◽  
Flow Channels ◽  
Boundary Layer Instability ◽  
The Stability

The problem of the stability of plane Couette flow to infinitesimal disturbances is carried numerically to larger Reynolds numbers than heretofore. The flow is definitely stable up to R = 1430, although at Reynolds numbers in this vicinity plane Couette flow has been observed experimentally to be turbulent. Observations on boundary-layer instability suggest this to be the source of turbulence in plane Couette flow channels.

scholarly journals Competition between the centrifugal and strato-rotational instabilities in the stratified Taylor–Couette flow

2018 ◽  
Vol 840 ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junho Park ◽  
Paul Billant ◽  
Jong-Jin Baik ◽  
Jaemyeong Mango Seo
Keyword(s):  
Stability Analysis ◽  
Linear Stability ◽  
Couette Flow ◽  
Linear Stability Analysis ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Axisymmetric Mode ◽  
Stability Threshold ◽  
Taylor Couette ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Taylor Couette Flow

The stably stratified Taylor–Couette flow is investigated experimentally and numerically through linear stability analysis. In the experiments, the stability threshold and flow regimes have been mapped over the ranges of outer and inner Reynolds numbers: $-2000<Re_{o}<2000$ and $0<Re_{i}<3000$, for the radius ratio $r_{i}/r_{o}=0.9$ and the Brunt–Väisälä frequency $N\approx 3.2~\text{rad}~\text{s}^{-1}$. The corresponding Froude numbers $F_{o}$ and $F_{i}$ are always much smaller than unity. Depending on $Re_{o}$ (or equivalently on the angular velocity ratio $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{o}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{i}$), three different regimes have been identified above instability onset: a weakly non-axisymmetric mode with low azimuthal wavenumber $m=O(1)$ is observed for $Re_{o}<0$ ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}<0$), a highly non-axisymmetric mode with $m\sim 12$ occurs for $Re_{o}>840$ ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}>0.57$) while both modes are present simultaneously in the lower and upper parts of the flow for $0\leqslant Re_{o}\leqslant 840$ ($0\leqslant \unicode[STIX]{x1D707}\leqslant 0.57$). The destabilization of these primary modes and the transition to turbulence as $Re_{i}$ increases have been also studied. The linear stability analysis proves that the weakly non-axisymmetric mode is due to the centrifugal instability while the highly non-axisymmetric mode comes from the strato-rotational instability. These two instabilities can be clearly distinguished because of their distinct dominant azimuthal wavenumber and frequency, in agreement with the recent results of Park et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 822, 2017, pp. 80–108). The stability threshold and the characteristics of the primary modes observed in the experiments are in very good agreement with the numerical predictions. Moreover, we show that the centrifugal and strato-rotational instabilities are observed simultaneously for $0\leqslant Re_{o}\leqslant 840$ in the lower and upper parts of the flow, respectively, because of the variations of the local Reynolds numbers along the vertical due to the salinity gradient.

The stability of plane Couette flow with viscosity stratification

1969 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 685-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex D. D. Craik
Keyword(s):  
Phase Velocity ◽  
Couette Flow ◽  
Liquid Velocity ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Critical Layer ◽  
Plane Couette Flow ◽  
Small Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Liquid Depth ◽  
The Stability

The stability of plane Couette flow is examined for liquids in which the viscosity varies with depth. Under suitable conditions, the flow may be stable or unstable at small Reynolds numbers for disturbances with wavelengths long compared with the liquid depth.A mechanism which may be stabilizing or destabilizing is found to derive from the role of diffusion in the neighbourhood of a ‘critical layer’, where the liquid velocity equals the phase velocity of a wave-like disturbance. This mechanism, which requires a viscosity gradient, is quite distinct from that found by Yih (1967) for the case of a viscosity discontinuity. An example is considered, for which these two mechanisms may be of comparable importance.

The linear stability of viscous compressible plane Couette flow

1989 ◽  
Vol 202 ◽  
pp. 515-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Glatzel
Keyword(s):  
Phase Velocity ◽  
Linear Stability ◽  
Couette Flow ◽  
Normal Modes ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Plane Couette Flow ◽  
Phase Velocities ◽  
Viscous Instability ◽  
Supersonic Regime ◽  
Critical Reynolds Numbers

The structure of normal modes in viscous compressible plane Couette flow is investigated. The spectrum is found to consist of two types of modes: the viscous modes, which obtain finite phase velocities by the mechanism of mode pairing; and the sonic modes, whose phase velocity becomes distorted in the supersonic regime. This leads to mode crossings which unfold, depending on the type of crossing modes, either into purely sonic or viscous-sonic instability bands. The latter provide a new example for viscous instability. Both mode pairing of viscous modes and distortion of the phase velocity of sonic modes is caused by the shear. Critical Reynolds numbers for the instabilities are derived.

scholarly journals The linear instability of the stratified plane Couette flow

2018 ◽  
Vol 853 ◽  
pp. 205-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulio Facchini ◽  
Benjamin Favier ◽  
Patrice Le Gal ◽  
Meng Wang ◽  
Michael Le Bars
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Stability Analysis ◽  
Numerical Simulations ◽  
Couette Flow ◽  
Vertical Direction ◽  
Stability Diagram ◽  
Linear Instability ◽  
Plane Couette Flow ◽  
Horizontal Shear ◽  
The Stability

We present the stability analysis of a plane Couette flow which is stably stratified in the vertical direction orthogonal to the horizontal shear. Interest in such a flow comes from geophysical and astrophysical applications where background shear and vertical stable stratification commonly coexist. We perform the linear stability analysis of the flow in a domain which is periodic in the streamwise and vertical directions and confined in the cross-stream direction. The stability diagram is constructed as a function of the Reynolds number $Re$ and the Froude number $Fr$, which compares the importance of shear and stratification. We find that the flow becomes unstable when shear and stratification are of the same order (i.e. $Fr\sim 1$) and above a moderate value of the Reynolds number $Re\gtrsim 700$. The instability results from a wave resonance mechanism already known in the context of channel flows – for instance, unstratified plane Couette flow in the shallow-water approximation. The result is confirmed by fully nonlinear direct numerical simulations and, to the best of our knowledge, constitutes the first evidence of linear instability in a vertically stratified plane Couette flow. We also report the study of a laboratory flow generated by a transparent belt entrained by two vertical cylinders and immersed in a tank filled with salty water, linearly stratified in density. We observe the emergence of a robust spatio-temporal pattern close to the threshold values of $Fr$ and $Re$ indicated by linear analysis, and explore the accessible part of the stability diagram. With the support of numerical simulations we conclude that the observed pattern is a signature of the same instability predicted by the linear theory, although slightly modified due to streamwise confinement.

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