The influence of initial condition on the linear stability of time-dependent circular Couette flow

Abstract

The effect of the starting condition on the linear stability properties of circular Couette flow with a time-dependent inner-cylinder motion is investigated. In addition to the WKBJ approach employed previously by Eagles [Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 355, 209 (1977)] for slowly varying flow, an initial-value method is also used. Results are presented for different stability criteria.