2015/05/23 by Hannes J. Brauckmann, Matthew Salewski, Bruno Eckhardt · 43 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Computer Science · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Boundary layer #Couette flow #Dimensionless quantity #Flow (mathematics) #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Inviscid flow #Mean flow #Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation #RADIUS #Reynolds number #Turbulence #nlin.CD #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/jfm.2015.737
published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics 790, 419-452 (Cambridge University Press)
arxiv created 2015/05/23 · openalex publication_date 2016/02/04 · arxiv updated 2016/04/20 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We numerically study turbulent Taylor–Couette flow (TCF) between two independently rotating cylinders and the transition to rotating plane Couette flow (RPCF) in the limit of infinite radii. By using the shear Reynolds number ReS and rotation number R_\itΩ as dimensionless parameters, the transition from TCF to RPCF can be studied continuously without singularities. Already for radius ratios \itη\geqslant 0.9 we find that the simulation results for various radius ratios and for RPCF collapse as a function of R_\itΩ , indicating a turbulent behaviour common to both systems. We observe this agreement in the torque, mean momentum transport, mean profiles and turbulent fluctuations. Moreover, in TCF and RPCF for R_\itΩ>0 , the profiles in the central region are found to conform with inviscid neutral stability. Intermittent bursts, that have been observed in the outer boundary layer and have been linked to the formation of a torque maximum for counter-rotation, are shown to disappear as \itη→ 1 . The corresponding torque maximum disappears as well. Instead, two new maxima of different origin appear for \itη\geqslant 0.9 and RPCF, a broad and a narrow one, in contrast to the results for smaller \itη . The broad maximum at R_\itΩ=0.2 is connected with a strong vortical flow and can be reproduced by streamwise-invariant simulations. The narrow maximum at R_\itΩ=0.02 only emerges with increasing ReS and is accompanied by an efficient and correlated momentum transport by the mean flow. Since the narrow maximum is of larger amplitude for ReS=2× 104 , our simulations suggest that it will dominate at even higher ReS .