Heat transfer effects on the stability of low speed plane Couette-Poiseuille flow

The stability problem of low-speed plane Couette-Poiseuille flow of air under heat transfer effects is solved numerically using the linear stability theory. Stability equations obtained from two-dimensional equations of motion and their boundary conditions result in an eigenvalue problem that is solved using an efficient shoot-search technique. Variable fluid properties are accounted for both in the basic flow and the perturbation (stability) equations. A parametric study is performed in order to assess the roles of moving wall velocity and heat transfer. It is found that the moving wall velocity and the location of the critical layers play decisive roles in the instability mechanism. The flow becomes unconditionally stable whenever the moving wall velocity exceeds half of the maximum velocity in the channel. With wall heating and Mach number effects included, the flow is stabilized.