Viscous incompressible flow between concentric rotating spheres. Part 3. Linear stability and experiments

Abstract

The stability of flow of a viscous incompressible fluid contained between a stationary outer sphere and rotating inner sphere is studied theoretically and experimentally. Previous theoretical results concerning the basic laminar flow (part 1) are compared with experimental results. Small and large Reynolds number results are compared with Stokes-flow and boundary-layer solutions. The effect of the radius ratio of the two spheres is demonstrated. A linearized theory of stability for the laminar flow is formulated in terms of toroidal and poloidal potentials; the differential equations governing these potentials are integrated numerically. It is found that the flow is subcritically unstable and that the observed instability occurs at a Reynolds number close to the critical value of the energy stability theory. Observations of other flow transitions, at higher values of the Reynolds number, are also described. The character of the stability of the spherical annulus flow is found to be strongly dependent on the radius ratio.