Instabilities of Flows and Transition to Turbulence

This book covers material ranging from classical hydrodynamic instability to contemporary research areas, including bluff body flow instability and mixed convection flows. It also examines applications in aerospace and other branches of engineering such as fluid mechanics. The author addresses classical material as well as new perspectives and presents comprehensive coverage of receptivity to complement the instability material. This book presents a concise, up-to-date treatment of theory and applications of viscous flow instability, providing both current knowledge and techniques.

Addressing classical material as well as new perspectives, Instabilities of Flows and Transition to Turbulence presents a concise, up-to-date treatment of theory and applications of viscous flow instability. It covers materials from classical instability to contemporary research areas including bluff body flow instability, mixed convection flows, and application areas of aerospace and other branches of engineering. Transforms and perturbation techniques are used to link linear instability with receptivity of flows, as developed by the author.

The book:

• Provides complete coverage of transition concepts, including receptivity and flow instability
• Introduces linear receptivity using bi-lateral Fourier-Laplace transform techniques
• Presents natural laminar flow (NLF) airfoil analysis and design as a practical application of classical and bypass transition
• Distinguishes strictly between instability and receptivity, which leads to identification of wall- and free stream-modes
• Describes energy-based receptivity theory for the description of bypass transitions

Instabilities of Flows and Transition to Turbulence has evolved into an account of the personal research interests of the author over the years. A conscious effort has been made to keep the treatment at an elementary level requiring rudimentary knowledge of calculus, the Fourier-Laplace transform, and complex analysis. The book is equally amenable to undergraduate students, as well as researchers in the field.