Finite-amplitude instability of mixed-convection in a heated vertical pipe (Q1261656)

This paper employs a weakly nonlinear instability theory to model the finite amplitude behaviour of unstable disturbances in mixed convection in a heated vertical circular pipe for both stably and unstably stratified arrangements. The authors consider the flow to be driven by an external pressure gradient while a constant heat flux is maintained at the outer wall. Assuming that the basic state is steady, parallel, laminar fully developed flow, they first obtain the basic equilibrium solution of the governing Boussinesq equations numerically by using a spectral/collocation technique. A linear stability analysis is then used to determine the point at which the basic state becomes unstable to infinitesimal disturbances of the form \(\psi(r)\cdot\exp\{i\alpha(z- ct)+in\phi\}\), where \(r\), \(\phi\), \(z\) are cylindrical polar coordinates, \(\alpha\) is a wave number, \(n\) an integer and \(c\) a wave speed. Finally, to investigate the finite amplitude behaviour using weakly nonlinear theory, the authors first separate the dependent variables into Fourier components of a disturbance wave predicted by the linear theory, and then solve the resulting equations governing the harmonic components by employing a perturbation expansion and the method of multiple scales. The authors present results which indicate that the dominant instability for stably stratified flow is a thermal-buoyant one while that for unstably stratified flow is a Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Whereas the former instability is found to be supercritical, the latter is found to be potentially subcritical. However the theory predicts that a large amplitude disturbance is required to initiate the subcritical instability while the amplitude of a supercritical disturbance will grow quickly as the magnitude of the Rayleigh number increases. Thus another flow transition involving rapid growth of a supercritical Rayleigh-Taylor instability followed by secondary instabilities that quickly lead to turbulence is possible. These predictions are in agreement with experimental observations but, as the authors observe, the accuracy of the method employed is restricted to a region very close to the neutral stability curve due to the fact that a large band of wave numbers become linearly unstable soon after the initial instability.