Comparing local and marching analyses of Goertler instability

Two methods of solving the partial differential equations describing Gortler instability are compared. Local separation-of-variable analysis predicts growth rates independently of any assumptions about initial disturbances. Global marching analysis requires initial-disturbance assumptions but is shown to provide results that are not affected after sufficient marching. The local analysis results are compared to the marching results and are seen to consistently overestimate growth rates by modest amounts