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Saturation of inertial instability in rotating planar shear flows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2007

R. C. KLOOSTERZIEL ,
P. ORLANDI  and
G. F. CARNEVALE
R. C. KLOOSTERZIEL
Affiliation:
School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
P. ORLANDI
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Meccanica e Aeronautica, University of Rome, “La Sapienza”, via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Roma, Italy
G. F. CARNEVALE
Affiliation:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
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Abstract

Inertial instability in a rotating shear flow redistributes absolute linear momentum in such a way as to neutralize the instability. In the absence of other instabilities, the final equilibrium can be predicted by a simple construction based on conservation of total momentum. Numerical simulations, invariant in the along-stream direction, suppress barotropic instability and allow only inertial instability to develop. Such simulations, at high Reynolds numbers, are used to test the theoretical prediction. Four representative examples are given: a jet, a wall-bounded jet, a mixing layer and a wall-bounded shear layer.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 583 , 25 July 2007 , pp. 413 - 422
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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References

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