An improved instability region for the extended Rayleigh problem of hydrodynamic stability

Abstract

For the extended Rayleigh problem of hydrodynamics stability dealing with homogeneous shear flows with variable cross section, we have obtained a parabolic instability region. This improved parabolic instability region intersects with the semicircular instability region under certain condition. The validity of the result is illustrated with an example of basic flows. Furthermore, we have obtained a bound for the complex part of the phase velocity.