We perform BiGlobal linear stability analysis on flow past a NACA0012 airfoil at 16° angle of attack and Reynolds number ranging from 400 to 1000. The steady-state two-dimensional base flows are computed using a well-tested finite difference code in combination with the selective frequency damping method. The base flow is characterized by two asymmetric recirculation bubbles downstream of the airfoil whose streamwise extent and the maximum reverse flow velocity increase with the Reynolds number. The stability analysis of the flow past the airfoil is carried out under very small spanwise wavenumber β = 10−4 to approximate the two-dimensional perturbation, and medium and large spanwise wavenumbers (β = 1–8) to account for the three-dimensional perturbation. Numerical results reveal that under small spanwise wavenumber, there are at most two oscillatory unstable modes corresponding to the near wake and far wake instabilities; the growth rate and frequency of the perturbation agree well with the two-dimensional direct numerical simulation results under all Reynolds numbers. For a larger spanwise wavenumber β = 1, there is only one oscillatory unstable mode associated with the wake instability at Re = 400 and 600, while at Re = 800 and 1000 there are two oscillatory unstable modes for the near wake and far wake instabilities, and one stationary unstable mode for the monotonically growing perturbation within the recirculation bubble via the centrifugal instability mechanism. All the unstable modes are weakened or even suppressed as the spanwise wavenumber further increases, among which the stationary mode persists until β = 4.

We perform two-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes simulation and global linear stability analysis of flow past a heated circular cylinder to investigate the effect of aided buoyancy on the stabilization of the flow. The Reynolds number of the incoming flow is fixed at 100, and the Richardson number characterizing the buoyancy is varied from 0.00 (buoyancy-free case) to 0.10 at which the flow is still unsteady. We investigate the effect of aided buoyancy in stabilizing the wake flow, identify the temporal and spatial characteristics of the growth of the perturbation, and quantify the contributions from various terms comprising the perturbed kinetic energy budget. Numerical results reveal that the increasing Ri decreases the fluctuation magnitude of the characteristic quantities monotonically, and the momentum deficit in the wake flow decays rapidly so that the flow velocity recovers to that of the free-stream; the strain on the wake flow is reduced in the region where the perturbation is the most greatly amplified. Global stability analysis shows that the temporal growth rate of the perturbation decreases monotonically with Ri, reflecting the stabilization of the flow due to aided buoyancy. The perturbation grows most significantly in the free shear layer separated from the cylinder. As Ri increases, the location of maximum perturbation growth moves closer to the cylinder and the perturbation decays more rapidly in the far wake. The introduction of the aided buoyancy alters the base flow, and destabilizes the near wake shear layer mainly through the strain-induced transfer term and the pressure term of the perturbed kinetic energy, whereas the flow is stabilized in the far wake as the strain is alleviated. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.