An experimental study of Couette instability of stratified fluids

Abstract

The stability of Couette flow of stratified salt solutions is investigated in an apparatus with both the inner and outer cylinders rotating. The ratio of the radius of the inner cylinder to that of the outer cylinder is 0·2. The flow is visualized by means of shadowgraph and dye-trace methods. Compared with homogeneous fluids, the effect of the stabilizing density gradient is to increase the critical speed of the inner cylinder and to decrease the critical wavelength for a given angular speed of the outer cylinder. When the cylinders are rotating in the same direction, in the critical state, the instabilities appear along the inner cylinder in a spiral wave form which is itself not very stable. With counterrotating cylinders, the instabilities appear as regularly spaced vortices which, for the most part, are neither symmetric Taylor vortices nor simple spirals. In addition, these vortices rotate as a whole at a speed generally smaller than that of the inner cylinder. From shadowgraph observations, stability curves are constructed for three density gradients. The critical wavelength and the rotational periods of the vortices are also determined.