Related papers: Stratified shear flow instabilities at large Richa…
We investigate the linear instability of two-layer stratified shear flows in a sloping two-dimensional channel, subject to non-zero longitudinal gravitational forces. We reveal three previously unknown instabilities, distinct from the…
The linear stability of a stratified shear flow for smooth density profiles is studied. This work focuses on the nature of the stability boundaries of flows in which both Kelvin-Helmholtz and Holmboe instabilities are present. For a fixed…
Highly stratified shear layers are rendered unstable even at high stratifications by Holmboe instabilities when the density stratification is concentrated in a small region of the shear layer. These instabilities may cause mixing in highly…
Marginally unstable Holmboe modes for smooth density and velocity profiles are studied. For a large family of flows and stratification that exhibit Holmboe instability, we show that the modes with phase velocity equal to the maximum or the…
We present a numerical investigation of three-dimensional, short-wavelength linear instabilities in Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) vortices in homogeneous and stratified environments. The base flow, generated using two-dimensional numerical…
We investigate the long-time properties of the two-dimensional inviscid Boussinesq equations near a stably stratified Couette flow, for an initial Gevrey perturbation of size $\varepsilon$. Under the classical Miles-Howard stability…
We investigate three-dimensional turbulence in a stably stratified fluid driven by a vertically sheared Kolmogorov flow using direct numerical simulations of the Boussinesq equations. As stratification increases, mean profiles evolve toward…
Linear stability of inviscid, parallel, and stably stratified shear flow is studied under the assumption of smooth strictly monotonic profiles of shear flow and density, so that the local Richardson number is positive everywhere. The…
The Holmboe wave instability is one of the classic examples of a stratified shear instability, usually explained as the result of a resonance between a gravity wave and a vorticity wave. Historically, it has been studied by linear stability…
We investigate shear driven wave generation at the interface between two immiscible fluids, using an exponential velocity profile with a sharp density interface representing stable stratification. At low Froude and high Bond numbers,…
Most idealized studies of stratified shear instabilities assume that the shear interface and the buoyancy interface are coincident. We discuss the role of asymmetry on the evolution of shear instabilities. Using linear stability theory and…
Although stably stratified shear flows, where the base velocity shear is quasi-continuously forced externally, arise in many geophysically and environmentally relevant circumstances, the emergent dynamics of their ensuing statistically…
The Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) occurs when a shock wave passes through an interface between fluids of different densities, a phenomenon prevalent in a variety of scenarios including supersonic combustion, supernovae, and inertial…
We present a model for the scaling of mixing in weakly rotating stratified flows characterized by their Rossby, Froude and Reynolds numbers Ro, Fr, Re. It is based on quasi-equipartition between kinetic and potential modes, sub-dominant…
We present an open-source Python library for simulating two-dimensional incompressible Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in stratified shear flows. The solver employs a fractional-step projection method with spectral Poisson solution via Fast…
Resistive tearing instabilities are common in fluids that are highly electrically conductive and carry strong currents. We determine the effect of stable stratification on the tearing instability under the Boussinesq approximation. Our…
This letter investigates the effect of shear on Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI). Even simple uniform shear strongly influences the instability; longer waves are completely stabilized when density stratification is large (higher Atwood…
We present results of three-dimensional (3D) simulations of the magnetohydrodynamic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a stratified shear layer. The magnetic field is taken to be uniform and parallel to the shear flow. We describe the…
Analysis of the saturation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability is undertaken to determine the extent to which the conjugate linearly stable mode plays a role. For a piecewise-continuous mean flow profile with constant shear in a fixed…
We study the dynamical system of a forced stratified mixing layer at finite Reynolds number $Re$, and Prandtl number $Pr=1$. We consider a hyperbolic tangent background velocity profile in the two cases of hyperbolic tangent and uniform…