Accession Number:

ADA026324

Title:

On the Stability of Plane Poiseuille Flow

Descriptive Note:

Master's thesis

Corporate Author:

NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA

Personal Author(s):

• Newby, Lewis R.

Report Date:

1976-03-01

Pagination or Media Count:

91.0

Abstract:

The stability of plane Poiseuille flow was studied using theory developed by Harrison. A similarity transformation was introduced which reduces computation time and provides better insight into the basic relations. The stability of the flow was examined from a Lagrangian viewpoint. Instability was found to be progressive in nature and three distinct levels were identified, namely incipient, critical, and fully developed instability. Results show that the critical Reynolds number can be lowered indefinitely if certain types of perturbations occur. Specifically these involve relatively abrupt changes in amplitude. This provides a possible explanation for the disagreement between earlier theory and experiment.

Descriptors:

• *AERODYNAMIC STABILITY
• *FLOW FIELDS
• *LAMINAR FLOW
• INSTABILITY
• LAGRANGIAN FUNCTIONS
• NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
• THESES
• TRANSFORMATIONS(MATHEMATICS)

Subject Categories:

• Fluid Mechanics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE