Session Cc - General Instabilities.
ORAL session, Sunday, November 23
303, Moscone Center
The instability characteristics of both uniform and non-uniform density curved incompressible free mixing layers, with basic velocity profiles having wake components, is studied using linear inviscid stability theory in spatial formulation. The disturbance equation is solved numerically using a shooting technique. Both two- and three-dimensional disturbances are considered. Results indicate that the existence of the curvature affects the instability characteristics of both the shear layer and the wake modes. The oblique wake mode can become stronger than its corresponding 2-D wake mode due to the curvature effects. The instability behaviors of the oblique wake modes also vary significantly with the introduction of the curvature effects. It is found that for a curved incompressible mixing layer the effects of the density variation across the layer on the instability characteristics of both the shear layer and the wake modes are similar to those of a plane mixing layer.