The Effect of Temperature Gradient on the Stability of Flow between Vertical, Concentric, Rotating Cylinders

Abstract

The effect of a radial temperature gradient on the hydrodynamic stability in the annular gap formed by two, vertical, concentric cylinders, the inner being rotatable and the outer both stationary and isothermally heated, was studied for the cases of zero and imposed axial fluid flow in the annular gap. For zero axial flow, it was found that the temperature gradient destabilizes the flow while not affecting the form of the secondary flow, viz. the classic Taylor vortex. For imposed axial flow, the point of neutral stability was modified only when natural convection was strong enough to affect the parabolic velocity profile associated with that flow; the extent of this modification was shown to depend on the direction of the axial flow. Also, the longitudinal temperature gradients within the gap were found to influence the axial wave number and the drift-velocity ratio.