After completing this course the student should be able to
- describe the behaviour of surface gravity waves
- explain the concept of group velocity of a wave
- describe the main features of internal waves in continuously stratified fluids, such as the oceans and in the atmosphere
- identify the mechanisms behind instabilities in flows governed by thermal convection and heat exchange
- discuss effects of centrifugal and Coriolis forces in unstable rotating systems
- describe the instability nature and mechanisms in shear flows, i.e. wake, jet, boundary layer and channel flows
- discuss the influence of viscosity on stability
- explain why classic asymptotic stability analysis provides only a partial description of disturbance amplification in shear flows