This paper investigates the three-dimensional stability of the wake behind a symmetrically confined circular cylinder by a linear stability analysis. Emphasis has been placed on discussing analogies and differences with the unconfined case to highlight the role of the inversion of the von Kármán street in the nature of the three-dimensional transition. Indeed, in this flow, the vortices of opposite sign that are alternately shed from the body into the wake cross the symmetry line further downstream and they assume a final configuration which is inverted with respect to the unconfined case. It is shown that the transition to a three-dimensional state has the same space–time symmetries of the unconfined case, although the shape of the linearly unstable modes is affected by the inversion of the wake vortices. A possible interpretation of this result is given here.

The mechanisms leading to large transient growth of disturbances for the flow in a channel with compliant walls are investigated. The walls are modelled as thin spring-backed plates, and the flow dynamics is modelled using the Navier–Stokes equations linearized round the Poiseuille profile. Analysis for streamwise invariant perturbations show that this fluid-structure system can sustain oscillatory energy evolution of large amplitude, in the form of spanwise standing waves. Such waves are related to the travelling waves which a free wall can support, modified to account for an ‘added mass’ effect. Simple scaling arguments are found to provide results in excellent agreement with computations of optimal disturbances, for low-to-moderate values of the stiffness parameter characterizing the compliant surface.

We present detailed results for the motion of a finite-sized gas bubble in a blood vessel. The bubble (dispersed phase) size is taken to be such as to nearly occlude the vessel. The bulk medium is treated as a shear thinning Casson fluid and contains a soluble surfactant that adsorbs and desorbs from the interface. Three different vessel sizes, corresponding to a small artery, a large arteriole, and a small arteriole, in normal humans, are considered. The haematocrit (volume fraction of RBCs) has been taken to be 0.45. For arteriolar flow, where relevant, the Fahraeus–Lindqvist effect is taken into account. Bubble motion causes temporal and spatial gradients of shear stress at the cell surface lining the vessel wall as the bubble approaches the cell, moves over it and passes it by. Rapid reversals occur in the sign of the shear stress imparted to the cell surface during this motion. Shear stress gradients together with sign reversals are associated with a recirculation vortex at the rear of the moving bubble. The presence of the surfactant reduces the level of the shear stress gradients imparted to the cell surface as compared to an equivalent surfactant-free system. Our numerical results for bubble shapes and wall shear stresses may help explain phenomena observed in experimental studies related to gas embolism, a significant problem in cardiac surgery and decompression sickness.