The existence of Taylor vortices and wide-gap instabilities in spherical Couette flow

Abstract

The flow of a viscous incompressible fluid in the gap between two concentric spheres was investigated for the case where only the inner sphere rotates and the outer one is stationary. Flow visualization studies were carried out for a wide range of Reynolds numbers (Re≦2·105) and aspect ratios (0.08≦β≦0.5) to determine the instabilities during the laminar-turbulent transition and the corresponding critical Reynolds numbers as a function of the aspect ratio. It was found that the laminar basic flow loses its stability at the stability threshold in different ways. The instabilities occurring depend strongly on the aspect ratio and the initial conditions. For small and medium aspect ratios (0.08≦β≦0.25), experiments were carried out as a function of the Reynolds number to determine the regions of existence for basic flow, Taylor vortex flow, supercritical basic flow and furthermore, to give the best fit for the maximum number of pairs of Taylor vortices as a function of aspect ratio. For wide gaps (0.33≦β≦0.5), however, Taylor vortices could not be detected. The first instability manifests itself as a break of the spatial symmetry and non-axisymmetric secondary waves with spiral arms appear depending on the Reynolds number. For β=0.33, secondary waves with an azimuthal wave numbern=six, five and four were found, while in the gap with an aspect ratio of β=0.5 secondary waves withn=five, four and three spiral arms exist. Frequencies of these secondary waves were measured, the corresponding critical Reynolds numbers and the transition Reynolds numbers during the transition to turbulence were found. The flow modes occurring at the poles look very similar to those found in the flow between two rotating disks. Effects of non-uniqueness and hysteresis were determined as a function of the acceleration rate.