Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2006
We investigate the weakly nonlinear spatial evolution of helical disturbances of an axisymmetrical jet which are the analogue of three-dimensional disturbances, such as a single oblique wave (the wave vector is directed at an angle to the main flow velocity) in plane-parallel flows. It is shown that when a supercriticality is large enough, the perturbation amplitude A grows in the streamwise direction (along z) explosively: A ∼ (z0 — z)−5/2, though more slowly than in the case of essentially three-dimensional disturbances in the form of a pair of oblique waves (A ∼ (z0 — z)−3; Goldstein & Choi 1989). The nonlinearity needed for such a growth, is due equally to the cylindricity of shear layer and to the spatial character of the evolution (in the temporal problem the ‘evolution’ contribution is absent). At a smaller supercriticality, the evolution equation has a non-local (integral in z) nonlinearity, unusual for the regime of a viscous critical layer. Scenarios of disturbance development for different levels of supercriticality are studied, with proper account taken of viscous broadening of the flow.