English

Transition to turbulence in a shear flow

chao-dyn 2009-10-31 v1 Chaotic Dynamics

Abstract

We analyze the properties of a 19 dimensional Galerkin approximation to a parallel shear flow. The laminar flow with a sinusoidal shape is stable for all Reynolds numbers Re. For sufficiently large Re additional stationary flows occur; they are all unstable. The lifetimes of finite amplitude perturbations show a fractal dependence on amplitude and Reynolds number. These findings are in accord with observations on plane Couette flow and suggest a universality of this transition szenario in shear flows.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.chao-dyn/9904048,
  title  = {Transition to turbulence in a shear flow},
  author = {Bruno Eckhardt and Alois Mersmann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:chao-dyn/9904048},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

revtex, 10 pages, 11 figures (included)