Harnessing the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability: feedback stabilization of an inviscid vortex sheet

In this investigation, we use a simple model of the dynamics of an inviscid vortex sheet given by the Birkhoff–Rott equation to obtain fundamental insights about the potential for stabilization of shear layers using feedback control. As actuation, we consider two arrays of point sinks/sources located a certain distance above and below the vortex sheet and subject to the constraint that their mass fluxes separately add up to zero. First, we demonstrate using analytical computations that the Birkhoff–Rott equation linearized around the flat-sheet configuration is in fact controllable when the number of actuator pairs is sufficiently large relative to the number of discrete degrees of freedom present in the system, a result valid for generic actuator locations. Next, we design a state-based linear-quadratic regulator stabilization strategy, where the key difficulty is the numerical solution of the Riccati equation in the presence of severe ill-conditioning resulting from the properties of the Birkhoff–Rott equation and the chosen form of actuation, an issue that is overcome by performing computations with a suitably increased arithmetic precision. Analysis of the linear closed-loop system reveals exponential decay of the perturbation energy and the corresponding actuation energy in all cases. Computations performed for the nonlinear closed-loop system demonstrate that initial perturbations of non-negligible amplitude can be effectively stabilized when a sufficient number of actuators is used. We also thoroughly analyse the sensitivity of the closed-loop stabilization strategies to the variation of a number of key parameters. Subject to the known limitations of inviscid vortex models, our findings indicate that, in principle, it may be possible to stabilize shear layers for relatively large initial perturbations, provided that the actuation has sufficiently many degrees of freedom.