Stability Criteria For Fluid Flows

This is a comprehensive and self-contained introduction to the mathematical problems of thermal convection. The book delineates the main ideas leading to the authors' variant of the energy method. These can be also applied to other variants of the energy method. The importance of the book lies in its focussing on the best concrete results known in the domain of fluid flows stability and in the systematic treatment of mathematical instruments used in order to reach them.

Instability of flows and their transition to turbulence are widespread phenomena in engineering and the natural environment, and are important in applied mathematics, astrophysics, biology, geophysics, meteorology, oceanography and physics as well as engineering. This is a textbook to introduce these phenomena at a level suitable for a graduate course, by modelling them mathematically, and describing numerical simulations and laboratory experiments. The visualization of instabilities is emphasized, with many figures, and in references to more still and moving pictures. The relation of chaos to transition is discussed at length. Many worked examples and exercises for students illustrate the ideas of the text. Readers are assumed to be fluent in linear algebra, advanced calculus, elementary theory of ordinary differential equations, complex variables and the elements of fluid mechanics. The book is aimed at graduate students but will also be very useful for specialists in other fields.

The study of hydrodynamic stability is fundamental to many subjects, ranging from geophysics and meteorology through to engineering design. This treatise covers both classical and modern aspects of the subject, systematically developing it from the simplest physical problems, then progressing chapter by chapter to the most complex, considering linear and nonlinear situations, and analysing temporal and spatial stability. The authors examine each problem both analytically and numerically: many chapters end with an appendix outlining relevant numerical techniques. All relevant fluid flows are treated, including those where the fluid may be compressible, or those from geophysics, or those that require salient geometries for description. Details of initial-value problems are explored equally with those of stability. As a result, the early transient period as well as the asymptotic fate for perturbations for a flow can be assessed. The text is enriched with many exercises, copious illustrations and an extensive bibliography and the result is a book that can be used with courses on hydrodynamic stability or as an authoritative reference for researchers.

A state-of-the art analysis of studies in the field of instability of flows, this book contains chapters by leading experts in fluid mechanics. One of the primary aims of the contributors is to determine fruitful directions for future advanced studies and research.

The instability of fluid flows is a key topic in classical fluid mechanics because it has huge repercussions for applied disciplines such as chemical engineering, hydraulics, aeronautics, and geophysics. This modern introduction is written for any student, researcher, or practitioner working in the area, for whom an understanding of hydrodynamic instabilities is essential. Based on a decade's experience of teaching postgraduate students in fluid dynamics, this book brings the subject to life by emphasizing the physical mechanisms involved. The theory of dynamical systems provides the basic structure of the exposition, together with asymptotic methods. Wherever possible, Charru discusses the phenomena in terms of characteristic scales and dimensional analysis. The book includes numerous experimental studies, with references to videos and multimedia material, as well as over 150 exercises which introduce the reader to new problems.

This book is a complete revision of the part of Monin & Yaglom's famous two-volume work "Statistical Fluid Mechanics: Mechanics of Turbulence" that deals with the theory of laminar-flow instability and transition to turbulence. It includes the considerable advances in the subject that have been made in the last 15 years or so. It is intended as a textbook for advanced graduate courses and as a reference for research students and professional research workers. The first two Chapters are an introduction to the mathematics, and the experimental results, for the instability of laminar (or inviscid) flows to infinitesimal (in practice "small") disturbances. The third Chapter develops this linear theory in more detail and describes its application to particular problems. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with instability to finite-amplitude disturbances: much of the material has previously been available only in research papers.

Hydrodynamic stability is of fundamental importance in fluid mechanics and is concerned with the problem of transition from laminar to turbulent flow. Drazin and Reid emphasise throughout the ideas involved, the physical mechanisms, the methods used, and the results obtained, and, wherever possible, relate the theory to both experimental and numerical results. A distinctive feature of the book is the large number of problems it contains. These problems not only provide exercises for students but also provide many additional results in a concise form. This new edition of this celebrated introduction differs principally by the inclusion of detailed solutions for those exercises, and by the addition of a Foreword by Professor J. W. Miles.