We have conducted a numerical studv of spherical Couette Vlow -the flow between differentiallv rotatin~ concentric spheres. When the qa D ratio o{(R2-RI)/RI (where R 1 and R 2 are the radii of the inner and outer spheres) is small, the flow near the e~uator resembles that between cylinders, the classic Tavlor-Couette ~roblem. As in Tavlor-Couette flow, when the angular momentum gradient, measur...

A new set of high Reynolds number experiments (Re = riΩi∆r ν ∼ 10 − 10) are conducted to examine the layer formation observed in stratified Taylor–Couette flow. A wider range of radius ratios η = ri ro (where ri and ro are the radii of the inner and outer cylinder, respectively) than previously possible is explored to examine the universality of the dependence of layer height l on U N , where U...

We present a physical explanation of turbulent bursts in the flow between concentric, rotating cylinders (Couette-Taylor flow), based on fully resolved direct numerical calculations. The bursts are a temporal oscillation between a spatially laminar flow and turbulence, discovered experimentally by Hamill et al. The onset of turbulence is shown to be due to a linear instability of the spiral flo...

Stability of a Bingham fluid in Taylor-Couette flow is studied. Of interest is to determine the critical values of the inner and outer cylinder angular velocities which cause the linear instability in the system. We introduce a perturbation into the basic flow, and examine the linearized Navier-Stokes equations for the perturbation. Assuming a normal mode solution for the perturbation, we obtai...