Instability of adiabatic shear flows in a channel

Abstract

Abstract The combined forced and free convection flow of a Newtonian fluid in a horizontal plane-parallel channel is examined. The boundary walls are considered as adiabatic, so that the only thermal effect acting in the fluid is the viscous dissipation due to the nonzero shear flow. As the shear flow may be caused by either an imposed horizontal pressure gradient or an imposed velocity difference between the bounding walls, one may envisage two scenarios where the stationary basic flow is Poiseuille-like or Couette-like, respectively. Both cases are surveyed with a special focus on practically significant cases where the Gebhart number is considered as very small, though nonzero. Furthermore, the Prandtl number is assumed as extremely large, thus pinpointing a scenario of creeping buoyant flow with a fluid having a very large viscosity. Within such a framework, the instability of the basic flow is analysed versus small-amplitude perturbations.