Instability of viscous incompressible flow in a channel with transversely corrugated walls

Destabilization of the laminar flow in a channel with transversly wavy walls is investigated. The basic flow is determined by a semi-analytical method based on the concept of immersed boundaries. The stability equations are discretized by the spectrally accurate Chebyshev-tau method. It is demonstrated that the transversal wall waviness can be used in order to achieve destabilization of the laminar flow at low Reynolds numbers. Possible applications include the improvement of mixing and heat/mass transfer in various devices used in heat technology, biotechnology and medicine.