title: Shear instability in fluids with a density-dependent viscosity.
abstract: We present a shear instability, which can be triggered in compressible fluids with density-dependent viscosity at shear rates above critical. The instability mechanism is generic: It is based on density-dependent viscosity, compressibility, as well as flow two-(three-)dimensionality that provides coupling between streamwise and transversal velocity components and density variations. The only factor stabilizing the instability is fluid elasticity. The corresponding eigenvalue problem for a plane Couette flow is solved analytically in the limiting cases of large and small wave numbers.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, 85741 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Steinberg
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Ivlev
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kompaneets
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Morfill