Analog of astrophysical magnetorotational instability in a Couette-Taylor flow of polymer fluids

Journal Article · Tue Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics (Print)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVE.80.066310· OSTI ID:21347379

Boldyrev, Stanislav; Huynh, Don; Pariev, Vladimir ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1150 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)

We report experimental observation of an instability in a Couette-Taylor flow of a polymer fluid in a thin gap between two coaxially rotating cylinders in a regime where their angular velocity decreases with the radius while the specific angular momentum increases with the radius. In the considered regime, neither the inertial Rayleigh instability nor the purely elastic instability is possible. We propose that the observed 'elastorotational' instability is an analog of the magnetorotational instability which plays a fundamental role in astrophysical Keplerian accretion disks.

• OSTI ID: 21347379
• Journal Information: Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics (Print), Vol. 80, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.066310; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; ISSN 1539-3755
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ACCRETION DISKS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
ANGULAR VELOCITY
ASTROPHYSICS
COUETTE FLOW
CYLINDERS
FLUIDS
INSTABILITY
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
POLYMERS
FLUID FLOW
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
MECHANICS
PHYSICS
VELOCITY
VISCOUS FLOW