Viscous and inviscid instabilities of flow along a streamwise corner (Q1962838)

The authors study the stability of flow along a streamwise corner formed by the intersection of two large flat plates held perpendicular to each other. Self-similar solutions for steady laminar mean flow in the corner region are obtained by solving the boundary layer equations for zero and nonzero streamwise pressure gradients. The authors investigate the stability of mean flow by using the linear stability analysis. It is shown that the effect of corner on the two-dimensional viscous instability is small and decreases the growth rate. The growth rate of outgoing oblique disturbances is decreased by the corner, while the growth rate of incoming oblique disturbances is increased by the corner. This asymmetry between outgoing and incoming viscous modes increases with increasing obliqueness. The authors also demonstrate that the stability of zero pressure gradient corner layer is dominated by the viscous modes; however, an inviscid corner mode instability is also observed. The critical Reynolds number corresponding to the inviscid mode instability decreases rapidly even for a small adverse pressure gradient.