Manchester Applied Mathematics and Numerical Analysis Seminars Winter 1998

December 16, 1998, 2.30 pm

Lecture Theatre D13 Material Science

Nonlinear travelling waves in buoyant boundary layers

Dr. Jim Denier, Dept. of Applied Mathematics, Univ. of Adelaide

This talk will describe some new results concerning the stability of boundary layers flowing over heated surfaces. In such flows the effect of thermal buoyancy becomes important both in the context of the structure of the main boundary layer flow and the form of instability such flows can support. We will consider some aspects of the linear stability of the flow and show how the results of the linear stability analysis can be extended to a nonlinear regime, one in which the wave amplitude and the wave induced mean flow are of comparable size. The structure of these nonlinear waves will be presented. Some discussion of current/future work and parallels between this work and more general three dimensional flows will be given.

For further info contact either Matthias Heil (mheil@ma.man.ac.uk), Mark Muldoon (M.Muldoon@umist.ac.uk)or the seminar secretary (Tel. 0161 275 5800).