Stability of Bödewadt flow

Abstract

The stability of the flow produced over an infinite stationary plane in a fluid rotating with uniform angular velocity at an infinite distance from the plane is considered. The basic flow is an exact solution of the Navier–Stokes equations making it amenable to theoretical study. An asymptotic investigation is presented in the limit of large Reynolds number. It is shown that the stationary spiral instabilities observed experimentally can be described by a linear inviscid stability analysis. The prediction obtained for the wave angle of the disturbances is found to agree well with the available experimental and numerical results.