Stability of Rayleigh Flow

Abstract

The stability of a two-dimensional unsteady flow of an incompressible viscous fluid is investigated by the method of small perturbation theory. An incompressible fluid is bounded by an infinite plane surface. The basic flow is such that the plane is given an impulsive start and then moves with constant velocity in its own plane. By the use of Lin’s procedure the relation between the Reynolds number of the basic flow which depends on time and the wave number of the neutral oscillation and also the minimum critical Reynolds number are calculated numerically.