Instabilities of flow state in Taylor-Couette geometries

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6626484

Jeong, K

Investigations of Taylor-Couette flow were carried out under quasistatic changes of the Reynolds number to study the flow development in the lower Reynold's Number regime. The object of the first series of investigations is to determine the stability boundary of Taylor Vortex Flow as a function of the Reynolds number and radius ratio. Four different types of transitions from Taylor Vortex Flows to Wavy Vortex Flow are observed. The measured stability boundary agrees with the calculated one remarkably well. The second series of investigations are focused on higher transitions of the Wavy Vortex Flow in one specific radius ratio. A new analytical technique is used to study (1) the vortex pair annihilation and creation in an m = 2 wavy vortex flow, (2) an m = 2 to an m = 3 wavy mode transition, and (3) an oscillatory behavior in an m = 3 wavy vortex flow. This work shows that the width of the indeterminate region between two adjacent m-mode states arises from nonquasistatic ramping. Under sufficiently slow ramping, the m-mode transitions are sharp. When the Reynolds number is increased quasistatically across the first m-mode transition, nonuniform vortex size distribution is attained. This nonuniformity travels in the axial direction in an oscillatory manner. This behavior depends strongly on the aspect ratio and the Reynolds number.

• Research Organization: Oregon Univ., Eugene (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6626484
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420400* -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
ASPECT RATIO
COUETTE FLOW
FLUID FLOW
INSTABILITY
OSCILLATION MODES
REYNOLDS NUMBER
VISCOUS FLOW
VORTEX FLOW