ME698

Introduction to Hydrodynamic Stability

Winter 2015

Problem Set 1
(Due in class on Wednesday, 21 January, 2015)

1. Consider a particle of unit mass and a single degree of freedom subject to a force
= () derived from the potential

2 4
= +
2
4

a. Write the equation of motion as a system of first-order differential equations.

b. Determine the fixed points of the system as well as their type. Sketch the phase
portrait. Show that for each trajectory there exists an invariant (, ), i.e. is

a constant. What does this invariant represent physically? Derive the equation for the
trajectories and complete the phase portrait. Interpret these trajectories in terms of the
particle motion.
c. Without any calculation, but instead imagining a ball in a double-well potential, show
how a friction force ( > 0) modifies the type of fixed point. Sketch the phase

portrait.

2. Consider the nonlinear oscillator

2 + = 0,

0,

which can be interpreted as an oscillator with a friction term involving a nonconstant friction coefficient = . This oscillator is a rudimentary model of

avalanches in a sand pile, with representing the deviation of the slope of the sand pile
from the equilibrium slope. An avalanche corresponds to < 0, and = 0 corresponds
to the stopping of the avalanche.

a. Write 2 + = 0 as a system of two first-order ODEs, and study the linear

stability of the fixed point as a function of the value of k. What can we conclude?

b. Sketch the phase portrait of the system for < 0 and > 0.
3. Consider a pure material near a phase transition. The thermodynamic state of the material
is described by an order parameter () assumed to be uniform in space (since the

material is homogeneous). This order parameter might be the molar volume of a fluid, the

magnetization of a ferromagnetic material, the orientation of liquid crystals, and so on.

The order parameter obeys the real equation

= (),

() =

2
4 6

,
2
4
6

where () is the derivative of the thermodynamic potential (). This equation

expresses the fact that the rate of variation of the order parameter is proportional to the

slope of the thermodynamic potential (). Here, is the control parameter of the
transition proportional to the difference from the transition temperature. In this exercise
we take = 1.

a. Show that the stable and unstable fixed points respectively correspond to the minima
and maxima of (). Justify the term thermodynamic potential for the function ().

b. Sketch the behaviour of the potential as a function of the control parameter and find
the bifurcation diagram as a function of . Specify the nature of the bifurcation.