ON THE DENSITY RATIO EFFECT ON THE GROWTH-RATE OF A COMPRESSIBLE MIXING LAYER

A ''curious reduction'' in the normalized growth rate found in recent experiments on compressible mixing layers is explained using linear st ability analysis. The maximum amplification rate from the stability an alysis agrees well with the growth rate measured in different experime nts. No anomalous reduction is observed in the normalized maximum ampl ification rate, suggesting that the model of growth rate for incompres sible mixing layers used to normalize the compressible mixing layer da ta is inaccurate for extreme density ratios.