Stability of a viscous subsonic heat-conducting swirl flow (Q1289490)

The stability characteristics of a three-dimensional swirl flow of a viscous heat-conducting gas are determined using the linear time-dependent theory of plane-parallel flow stability. The main undisturbed axisymmetric vortex flow is determined numerically, using a quasi-cylindrical approximation for the full Navier-Stokes equations. The circulation of the boundary velocity in the cocurrent flow surrounding the viscous core is assumed to be constant. In analyzing the stability of non-axisymmetric perturbations of the shape of waves traveling along the vortex axis, the author considers both positive an negative wave numbers. In these two cases, the perturbation rotation is either the same or opposite to the rotation in the vortex core. Finally, the author determines neutral stability curves for various values of the swirling parameter and the cocurrent flow Mach number.