Nonparallel local spatial stability analysis of pipe entrance swirling flows

Abstract

A spatial local viscous stability analysis of a swirling flow developing in a cylindrical pipe has been carried out numerically. Even at moderately low swirl strengths, we have found the existence of centrifugal modes in addition to the shear ones found in previous stability analysis of nonswirling flows developing in pipes. It is found that these centrifugal instabilities develop at Reynolds numbers that are much lower than those required for the growing of the shear instability. Moreover, the extent of the region where centrifugal instabilities appear is much larger than that where the shear layer instability grows. We have found from the analysis that the most unstable mode was the counter-rotating one (n = -1). The critical Reynolds number for which linear analysis predicts the growth of the convective instabilities is for the centrifugal modes one hundred times smaller than for the shear layer ones.