The evolution of finite-amplitude wavetrains in plane channel flow

Hewitt, R.E. and Hall, P. (1998) The evolution of finite-amplitude wavetrains in plane channel flow. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A, 356. pp. 2413-2446. ISSN 1471-2962

PDF HewittHall98_PTRS.pdf Download (540kB)

Abstract

We consider a viscous incompressible fluid flow driven between two parallel plates by a constant pressure gradient. The flow is at a finite Reynolds number, with an O(1) disturbance in the form of a travelling wave. A phase equation approach is used to discuss the evolution of slowly varying fully nonlinear two-dimensional wave- trains. We consider uniform wavetrains in detail, showing that the development of a wavenumber perturbation is governed by the Burgers equation in most cases. The wavenumber perturbation theory, constructed by using the phase equation approach for a uniform wavetrain, is shown to be distinct from an amplitude perturbation expansion about the periodic flow. In fact, we show that the amplitude equation contains only linear terms and is simply the heat equation. We review, briefly, the well-known dynamics of the Burgers equation, which imply that both shock struc- tures and finite-time singularities of the wavenumber perturbation can occur with respect to the slow scales. Numerical computations have been performed to iden- tify areas of the {wavenumber, Reynolds number, energy} neutral surface for which each of these possibilities can occur. We note that the evolution equations will break down under certain circumstances, in particular for a weakly nonlinear secondary flow. Finally, we extend the theory to three dimensions and discuss the limit of a weak spanwise dependence for uniform wavetrains, showing that two functions are required to describe the evolution. These unknowns are a phase and a pressure func- tion which satisfy a pair of linearly coupled partial differential equations. The results obtained from applying the same analysis to the fully three-dimensional problem are included as an appendix.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Transition plane channel flow instability nonlinear wave
Subjects:	MSC 2010, the AMS's Mathematics Subject Classification > 76 Fluid mechanics PACS 2010, the AIP's Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme > 40 ELECTROMAGNETISM, OPTICS, ACOUSTICS, HEAT TRANSFER, CLASSICAL MECHANICS, AND FLUID MECHANICS > 47 Fluid dynamics
Depositing User:	Dr Richard E. Hewitt
Date Deposited:	14 Nov 2013
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2017 14:13
URI:	https://eprints.maths.manchester.ac.uk/id/eprint/2054

Actions (login required)

View Item