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The stability of shearing motion in a rotating fluid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

J. A. Johnson
J. A. Johnson
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Cambridge
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Abstract

This paper is concerned with the stability of a parallel shear flow in an inviscid homogeneous unbounded rotating fluid. A sufficient condition for stability is obtained in terms of the dimensionless parameter N = (cosϕ)/S, where ϕ is the angle between the wave-number K of the disturbance and the axis of rotation, and S is the Rossby number based on the thickness of the shear layer and the change in velocity across the layer. The condition is that infinitesimal disturbances are stable if either $N \ge \frac{1}{2}(1-sin\; \theta)\; \; or\; \; N \le -\frac {1}{2}(1+sin\; \theta)$ Where θ is the angle between k and the direction of streaming. For a shear layer profile of the type U = tanh z, the neutral curves are calculated for various Rossby numbers. These are compared to the stability of a shear layer in a stratified non-rotating fluid. The stability criterion for the large wave-numbers in a cylindrical shear layer is inferred from these results.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , November 1963 , pp. 337 - 352
Copyright
© 1963 Cambridge University Press

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References

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