A linear system for pipe flow stability analysis allowing for boundary condition modifications

Abstract: An accurate system to study the stability of pipe flow that ensures regularity is presented. The system produces a spectrum that is as accurate as Meseguer & Trefethen (2000), while providing flexibility to amend the boundary conditions without a need to modify the formulation. The accuracy is achieved by formulating the state variables to behave as analytic functions. We show that the resulting system retains the regular singularity at the pipe centre with a multiplicity of poles such that the wall boundary conditions are complemented with precisely the needed number of regularity conditions for obtaining unique solutions. In the case of axisymmetric and axially constant perturbations the computed eigenvalues match, to double precision accuracy, the values predicted by the analytical characteristic relations. The derived system is used to obtain the optimal inviscid disturbance pattern, which is found to hold similar structure as in plane shear flows.