The characteristics of spiral waves in an axially rotating pipe

Abstract

An experimental study of the instability of a flow in an axially rotating pipe is performed by means of LDV and flow visualization technique. It is found that the axial velocity of the rotating pipe flow fluctuates like a sine wave at first, then its fluctuating pattern assumes a somewhat sawtooth wave form as a spiral wave appears, which is predicted by means of linear and nonlinear stability analysis. At a certain rotation rate, the amplitude of the velocity fluctuations amounts to 30% of the axial velocity. At the down-stream section, another fluctuating component appears in the velocity, which interferes with the initially appearing component, then the fluctuation becomes one with broad-band spectral components. There is a close analogy between this spectral evolution and that of a Taylor-Couette flow. Deformation of the velocity distribution is obtained from the velocity fluctuating pattern and its phase, and the structure of the spiral wave is considered. The strength, azimuthal wavenumber and angular velocity of the spiral wave obtained from the velocity data are confirmed by flow visualization. The change of pressure loss in the rotating pipe is compared with the case without rotation.