Linear instability of curved free shear layers
Abstract
The linear inviscid hydrodynamic stability of slightly curved free mixing layers is studied in this paper. The disturbance equation is solved numerically using a shooting technique. Two mean velocity profiles that represent stably and unstably curved free mixing layers are considered. Results are shown for cases of five curvature Richardson numbers. The stability characteristics of the shear layer are found to vary significantly with the introduction of the curvature effects. The results also indicate that, in a manner similar to the Goertler vortices observed in a boundary layer along a concave wall, instability modes of spatially developing streamwise vortex pairs may appear in centrifugally unstable curved mixing layers.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- July 1993
- Bibcode:
- 1993STIN...9414729L
- Keywords:
-
- Flow Stability;
- Goertler Instability;
- Inviscid Flow;
- Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability;
- Mixing Layers (Fluids);
- Shear Layers;
- Vortices;
- Boundary Layers;
- Computational Fluid Dynamics;
- Curvature;
- Richardson Number;
- Velocity Distribution;
- Wall Flow;
- Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer