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The stability of stratified shear flows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2006

M. R. Collyer
M. R. Collyer
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Essex, Colchester Present address: Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, Hants.
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Abstract

Small perturbations of a parallel shear flow U(z) in an inviscid, incompressible, stably stratified fluid of density ρ(z) are considered, for which the principal measure of stability is the Richardson number, R. For an arbitrary velocity and density profile we discuss the problem of determining whether a curve of neutral stability has adjacent unstable regions in an (α, R) plane, where α is the wave-number of the disturbance. Neutral curves bounding unstable regions are then obtained for a triangular jet flow in conjunction with various density distributions. A comparison is also made between the stability characteristics of jet and shear flows with corresponding density structures.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , 22 June 1970 , pp. 367 - 377
Copyright
© 1970 Cambridge University Press

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References

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