On three-dimensional global linear instability analysis of flows with standard aerodynamics codes

The development of a general Jacobian-free approach for the solution of large-scale global linear instability analysis eigenvalue problems by coupling a time-stepping algorithm with industry-standard second-order accurate aerodynamic codes is presented. The three-dimensional lid-driven cavity, a challenging flow in the context of required computational resources and physical complexity, has been chosen for validation. Results in excellent agreement with the literature have been obtained by using the proposed theoretical methodology coupled with the incompressible solver of the open-source toolbox OpenFOAM. The moderate computational resources required for the solution of the TriGlobal eigenvalue problem using this method opens up a new avenue for the performance of instability analysis of flows of engineering relevance.