Instabilité d'une nappe de vorticité étirée instationnaireInstability of an unsteady stretched vortex layer

We consider how the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability is affected by an external hyperbolic strain flow. The basic flow being unsteady, the inviscid evolution of perturbations is studied within the framework of a non-normal analysis in which the maximum amplification is computed for any given time. A positive or negative stretching is shown to enhance or reduce, respectively, the instability even for weak stretching rates. To cite this article: T. Gomez, M. Rossi, C. R. Mecanique 331 (2003).