Abstract
This paper presents our numerical and experimental results of the bifurcation found in Taylor-Couette system with a free surface. The lengths of the two concentric cylinders are finite and their axes are parallel to the direction of the gravitational force. When the end walls of the cylinders are fixed and stationary, numerical and experimental studies have shown that the flow has multiple patterns depending on the cylinder lengths and the Reynolds numbers. Experimental studies on flows with free surfaces also gave various flow modes. Our result shows that the measured and predicted time-dependent displacements of the free surface are in favorable agreement. In case of the cylinder length comparable with the gap width between the cylinders, gradual accelerations of the inner cylinder bring the normal mode flows with one, three and five toroidal vortices. The exchanges of stabilities between these flow modes are summarized in a phase diagram.
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Takashi Watanabe: He received his Ph.D degree (Eng.) from Nagoya University in 1986. He now works as a professor at the EcoTopia Science Institute, Nagoya University. His current research interests are the computational fluid dynamics of rotating flows and the human-computer interfaces. He is a member of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Japan Society of Fluid Mechanics and the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence.
Hiroyuki Furukawa: He received the BE degree in mechanical engineering from Nagoya University (1997) and the MA degree and Ph.D degree in human informatics from Nagoya University (1999). He now works as an associate professor at Meijo University. His researches include flow transient, flow visualization and non-linear dynamics.
Yorinobu Toya: He received Ph.D degree (Eng.) from Nagoya University in 1994. He works as a professor at Mechanical Engineering in Nagano National College of Technology. His current researches are the experimental and numerical studies for the circulating flows between rotating cylinders.
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Watanabe, T., Furukawa, H. & Toya, Y. Transition of free-surface flow modes in taylor-couette system. J Vis 10, 309–316 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03181698
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03181698