An analytic approach for calculating absolutely unstable inviscid modes of the boundary layer on a rotating disk

Abstract

An analytical treatment of inviscidly absolutely unstable modes is pursued using the long-wavelength asymptotic approach. It is shown using the inviscid Rayleigh scalings in conjunction with the linear critical layer theory that the rotating-disk boundary layer flow undergoes a region of absolute instability for some small azimuthal wave numbers. The analytically calculated branch points for the absolute instability are found to be in good agreement with those obtained via a numerical solution of the inviscid Rayleigh equation.