Instability Analysis of Laminar Flows

P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department
I I T Delhi

Quantification of Laminar flow weakness

…
 Disturbance Conservation Equation

~
v  ~ ~  1 ~ 
2~
 V  v  v  V   p  v
t 
Equation in Cartesian index notation is written as
v~i v~i ~ Vi 1 ~
p  2 v~i
Vj  vj   2
t x j x j  xi x j
This equation describes the motion of a three-dimensional
disturbance field modulated by a steady three-dimensional laminar
main flow field.
A solution to above equation will be studied to determine the
stability of main flow.
Two assumptions are made in order to find an analytic solution.
The first assumption implies that the main flow is assumed to be
two-dimensional, where the velocity vector in streamwise direction
changes only in lateral direction
• The second assumption concerns the disturbance field.
• In this case, we also assume the disturbance field to be two-
dimensional too.
• The first assumption is considered less controversial, since
the experimental verification shows that in an unidirectional
flow, the lateral component can be neglected compared with
the longitudinal one.
• As an example, the boundary layer flow along a flat plate at
zero pressure gradient can be regarded as a good
approximation.
• The second assumption concerning the spatial two
dimensionality of the disturbance flow is not quite obvious.
• This may raise objections that the disturbances need not be
two dimensional at all.
 Two-dimensional Disturbance Equations in BL

u~ u~ u~ ~ U ~ U 1 ~

p   2u~  2u~ 
U V u v    2  2 
t x y x y  x  x y 
v~ v~ v~ ~ V ~ V 1 ~
p   2 v~  2 v~ 
U V u v    2  2 
t x y x y  y  x y 
The continuity equation for incompressible flow yields:


 ~
 V v  0  
   v~  0

as  V  0
U V u~ v~
 0  0
x y x y

With above equations there are three-equations to solve three

unknowns.
 Modulation of Disturbance by BL Flow
u~ u~ ~ U 1 ~
p   2u~  2u~ 
U v    2  2 
t x y  x  x y 

v~ v~ 1 ~p   2 v~  2 v~ 

U    2  2 
t x  y  x y 
For the disturbance field which is superimposed on the main laminar
flow, introduce a travelling disturbance as a complex stream

 x, y, t     y e i x  t 
function:

is the complex function of disturbance amplitude which is assumed to

be a function of y only.
The stream function can be decomposed into a real and an imaginary
part:
 x, y, t    x, y, t  i x, y, t 
Invention of Disturbance Function
 Physically Meaningful Disturbance Function
 x, y, t    x, y, t  i x, y, t 
from which only the real part has a physical meaning.

 x, y, t   eit  cosx   t    sin x   t 

The complex amplitude is decomposed into a real and an
imaginary part:
    i
While  is a real quantity and is related to the wavelength=2/ .
the quantity  is complex and consists of a real and an imaginary
part.

    i 
 The perturbation Velocity Field
The components of the perturbation velocity are obtained from the
stream function as:

~  x, y, t  d  y  i x  t 
u  e
y dy
 x, y, t 
~
v   i  y e i x  t 

x
Introduce the disturbance velocities into stability equations:

u~ u~ ~ U 1 ~
p   2u~  2u~ 
U v    2  2 
t x y  x  x y 

v~ v~ 1 ~
p   2 v~  2 v~ 
U    2  2 
t x  y  x y 
 Orr-Sommerfeld -equation
• The Orr-Sommerfeld -equation was derived by Orr and
independently Sommerfeld .
• This equation is obtained by Introducing disturbance velocity
functions into modulation equations .
• Eliminate the pressure terms by differentiating the first
component of the equation with respect to y and the second with
respect to x respectively and subtracting the results from each
other.

 
U  c        U   
2 i
 Re

   2 2    2 
 r i
c   i  cr  ici
  
This constitutes the fundamental differential equation for stability of
laminar flows in dimensionless form.
 Orr-Sommerfeld Eigen value Problem
• The Orr-Sommerfeld equation is a fourth order linear
homogeneous ordinary differential equation.
• With this equation the linear stability problem has been reduced
to an eigenvalue problem. :

 
U  c        U   
2 i
 Re

   2 2    2 
OSEV Equation contains the main flow velocity distribution U(y)
which is specified for the particular flow motion under investigation,
the Reynolds number, and the parameters , cr, and ci .
 Secrets of Stability
• The secrets of infinitesimal laminar-flow instability lie within this
fourth-order linear homogeneous equation, first derived
independently by Orr (1907) and Sommerfeld (1908).
• The boundary conditions are that the disturbances u and v must
vanish at infinity and at any walls (no slip).
• Hence the proper boundary conditions on the Orr-Sommerfeld
equation are of the following types:
~ ~ 
Boundary layers: at y   : u  v  0 :   0, 0
y
~ ~ 
at y  0 : u  v  0 :   0, 0
y
 
at y   h :   0, 0
Duct flows: y


Free shear layers: at y   :   0, 0
y
 Rayleigh equation
• An inviscid flow is defined as the viscous flow with the
Reynolds number approaching infinity.
• For this special case the Orr-Sommerfeld stability equation
reduces to the following Rayleigh equation

U  c     2  U   0
Rayleigh Equation is a second order linear differential equation
and need to satisfy only two boundary conditions:


at y  0 :
y
0 at y   :   0
 Solution of Stability ODE
• The Orr-Sommerfeld equation has three parameters: , c, and a
Reynolds number.
• For a given profile U(y) and U"(y), only a certain continuous but
limited sequence of these parameters (the eigenvalues) will satisfy
the ODE with BCs.
• The mathematical problem is to find this sequence, which has a
different functional form for spatial versus temporal growth of
disturbances:
Temporal growth: f Re,  , cr , ci   0

Spatial growth: g Re,  , cr , ci   0

Of particular interest is the case of neutral stability: ci = 0 for the

temporal case and  = 0 for spatial neutral growth.
The locus of these neutral points forms the boundary between
stability and instability.
 Solution of Rayleigh Equation
• The Rayleigh equation can be readily solved either analytically or
numerically. [Rayleigh (1880) ]
• Two important theorems on inviscid stability are developed as
follows:
• Theorem 1 :It is necessary for instability that the velocity profile
have a point of inflection.
• Theorem 2: The phase velocity cr, of an amplified disturbance
must always lie between the minimum and maximum values of
U(y).
• Rayleigh's result, Theorem 1, led engineers for many year to
believe that real (viscous) profiles without a point of inflection
such as channel flows and boundary layers with favorable
pressure are stable.
• It remained for Prandtl (1921) to show that viscosity can indeed
be destabilizing for certain wave numbers at finite Reynolds
number.
Stability of boundary layer flow over flat plate

16
Neutral (temporal) curves of the Orr-Sommerfeld
f Re,  , cr , ci   0
equation

Re cr
 Neutral (temporal) curves of the Orr-Sommerfeld
equation

Re cr
Neutral (temporal) curves of the Orr-Sommerfeld
f Re,  , cr , ci   0
equation

Re cr
Neutral curves of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation
Stability of Blasius BL
Stability map for a plane Poiseulle flow.