The dynamic stability of the flow in a meander channel

The meander channel is one of the most common channel patterns in nature.The characteristics of the flow and sediment in a meander channel which have significant effect on the development of watercourse are important subjects in river dynamics.The transition of the flow patterns in a meander channel concerns with the development mode of the channel pattern and the river regime including the generation conditions of the three-dimensional coherent vortex and secondary flow,the hierarchical scale of coherent vortex in different flow conditions,the large-scale turbulent eddy structure adapted to a meander,etc.In this paper we study the laminar flow instability of the two-dimensional channel in a meander channel.It is essentially different from that in a straight channel:The neutral curve will move forward and the critical Reynolds number will decrease.The flow is unstable in response to a wider range of the disturbance wave number,or the laminar flow instability can happen more easily.The above results could not be obtained in the traditional hydrodynamic stability theory so that our work in this paper would make up for the deficiency and blank in this aspect.