Stability of a channel flow subject to wall blowing and suction in the form of a traveling wave

Inspired by the recent finding by Min et al. [J. Fluid Mech. 558, 309 (2006)], the stability of a channel flow subject to wall blowing and suction in the form of a traveling wave is investigated by combined use of the Floquet analysis, direct numerical simulation, and singular value decomposition analysis. Results show that stability highly depends on the phase speed of the traveling wave; most disturbances become highly unstable when the phase speed is around 40% of the centerline velocity, while streamwise streak-type three-dimensional disturbances become stabilized with transient growth suppressed when the phase speed exceeds the centerline velocity for both subcritical and supercritical Reynolds numbers. This destabilization is interpreted by investigation of wave interactions. An upstream-traveling wave, which reduces mean drag, does not stabilize the flow.