LAUSR

This study seeks to characterise the breakdown of the steady two-dimensional solution in the flow around a 180-degree sharp bend to infinitesimal three-dimensional disturbances using a linear stability analysis. The stability analysis predicts that three-dimensional transition is via a synchronous instability of the steady flows. A highly accurate global linear stability analysis of the flow was conducted with Reynolds number $\mathit{Re}<1150$ and bend opening ratio (ratio of bend width to inlet height) $0.2\leqslant \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\leqslant 5$ . This range of $\mathit{Re}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ captures both steady-state two-dimensional flow solutions and the inception of unsteady two-dimensional flow. For $0.2\leqslant \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\leqslant 1$ , the two-dimensional base flow transitions from steady to unsteady at higher Reynolds number as $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ increases. The stability analysis shows that at the onset of instability, the base flow becomes three-dimensionally unstable in two different modes, namely a spanwise oscillating mode for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}=0.2$ and a spanwise synchronous mode for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\geqslant 0.3$ . The critical Reynolds number and the spanwise wavelength of perturbations increase as $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ increases. For $1<\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\leqslant 2$ both the critical Reynolds number for onset of unsteadiness and the spanwise wavelength decrease as $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ increases. Finally, for $2<\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\leqslant 5$ , the critical Reynolds number and spanwise wavelength remain almost constant. The linear stability analysis also shows that the base flow becomes unstable to different three-dimensional modes depending on the opening ratio. The modes are found to be localised near the reattachment point of the first recirculation bubble.