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Theoretical flow instability of the Kármán boundary layer

  • Thermal Engineering · Fluid Engineering · Energy and Power Engineering
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Abstract

The hydrodynamic stability of the Kármán boundary-layer flow due to a rotating disk has been numerically investigated for moving disturbance waves. The disturbed flow over a rotating disk can lead to transition at much lowerRe than that of the well-known Type I instability mode. This early transition is due to the excitation of the Type II instability mode of moving disturbances. Presented are the neutral stability results concerning the two instability modes by solving new linear stability equations reformulated not only by considering whole convective terms but by correcting some errors in the previous stability equations. The reformulated stability equations are slightly different with the previous ones. However, the present neutral stability results are considerably different with the previously known ones. It is found that the flow is always stable for a disturbance whose dimensionless wave numberk is greater than 0.75.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, 440-746, Suwon, Korea

    Young-Kyu Hwang & Yun-Yong Lee

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  1. Young-Kyu Hwang
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  2. Yun-Yong Lee
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Correspondence to Young-Kyu Hwang.

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Hwang, YK., Lee, YY. Theoretical flow instability of the Kármán boundary layer. KSME International Journal 14, 358–368 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03186429

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03186429

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