Computations of transitions and taylor vortices in temporally modulated taylor-couette flow

Abstract

Numerical methods are presented to study the temporally modulated Taylor-Couette flow problem. The first method uses Floquet theory to examine the transition from azimuthal flow to axisymmetric oscillating Taylor vortices. The second method uses a spectral initial value code to investigate the nonlinear development of these vortices. The properties of stability and convergence of the methods are discussed. To illustrate the significance of these methods new results about the generation of a vortex pair and the subharmonic response of stretched vortices are also presented.