Summary: J. Fluid Mech. (2007), vol. 590, pp. 471­496. c 2007 Cambridge University Press
doi:10.1017/S0022112007008105 Printed in the United Kingdom
471
Stability control and catastrophic transition in a
forced Taylor­Couette system
M. AVILA1
, F. MARQUES1
, J. M. LOPEZ2
AND A. MESEGUER1
1
Departament de F´isica Aplicada, Univ. Polit`ecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona 08034, Spain
2
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
(Received 25 January 2007 and in revised form 4 July 2007)
Harmonic axial motion of the inner cylinder in the Taylor­Couette system can
efficiently shift the onset of instability to larger inner cylinder rotation rates. However,
once instability has set in, a rapid sequence of symmetry-breaking bifurcations results
in complex spatio-temporal dynamics even for very low post-critical values of the
rotation rate. Using spectral computations, we present a detailed study of this
sudden transition, shedding light on the nature of the complex flows observed in

Source: Avila, Marc - Complex Dynamics and Turbulence Group, Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, Göttingen
Lopez, John M. - Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Arizona State University
Marques, Francisco - Departament de Física Aplicada, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Meseguer, Alvaro - Departament de Física Aplicada, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Collections: Engineering; Mathematics; Physics