Inviscid instability of a skewed compressible mixing layer

Abstract

In this paper we study the inviscid instability of a skewed compressible mixing layer between streams of different velocity magnitude and direction. The mean flow is governed by the three-dimensional laminar boundary-layer equations and can be reduced to a sum of a uniform flow and a two-dimensional shear flow. In the stability analysis, the amplification direction is assumed to be normal to the homogeneous direction of the mean flow. The results show that skewing enhances the instability by a factor of three for the incompressible mixing layer with velocity ratio 0.5 and uniform temperature. Under compressible conditions, skewing still increases the maximum amplification rate for a medium convective Mach number, but the enhancement is smaller. A scaling of the skewing effect is introduced which quantitatively explains the linear stability behaviour. Similarly, a suitably defined convective Mach number explains the compressibility effect.