Organized structures in turbulent Taylor-Couette flow

Abstract

A simple mathematical model is constructed to describe the regime of flow, extending over a wide range of values of Taylor number, in which turbulent Taylor–Couette flow in the annular region between two coaxial circular cylinders is characterized by the coexistence of steady coherent motion on two widely separated scales. These scales of motion, corresponding to the gap width of the annular region and to a boundary-layer thickness, are each identified as the consequence of a centrifugal instability, and are described as Taylor vortices and Görtler vortices respectively.The assumption that both scales of motion are near marginal stability gives a closure to a pair of coupled eigenvalue problems, and the results of a linear analysis are shown to be in good agreement with many features of experimental observations.