The rich structure of transition in a shear flow

Abstract

Significant advances have been made in applying ideas from nonlinear dynamical systems theory to flows which exhibit sequences of bifurcations in the transition to turbulence. Moreover, the recent discoveries of finite-amplitude states in linearly stable flows holds great promise for a breakthrough in our understanding transition in shear flows. Tsukahara, Tillmark & Alfredsson (J. Fluid Mech., 2010, this issue, vol. 648, pp. 5–33) study a novel variant of a classical shear flow by adding global rotation. The competition between the induced body force and shear-induced instabilities leads to the discovery of a rich and beautiful tapestry of transition sequences.