TY - JOUR
T1 - Ring-bursting behavior en route to turbulence in narrow-gap Taylor-Couette flows
AU - Altmeyer, Sebastien
AU - Do, Younghae
AU - Lai, Ying-Cheng
N1 - Y.D. was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2013R1A1A2010067). Y.-C. L. was supported by AFOSR under Grant No. FA9550-15-1-0151.
PY - 2015/11
Y1 - 2015/11
N2 - We investigate the Taylor-Couette system where the radius ratio is close to unity. Systematically increasing the Reynolds number, we observe a number of previously known transitions, such as one from the classical Taylor vortex flow (TVF) to wavy vortex flow (WVF) and transition to fully developed turbulence. Prior to the onset of turbulence, we observe intermittent bursting patterns of localized turbulent patches, confirming the experimentally observed pattern of very short wavelength bursts (VSWBs). A striking finding is that, for Reynolds number larger than that for the onset of VSWBs, a new type of intermittently bursting behavior emerges: patterns of azimuthally closed rings of various orders. We call them ring-bursting patterns, which surround the cylinder completely but remain localized and separated in the axial direction through non-turbulent wavy structures. We employ a number of quantitative measures including the cross-flow energy to characterize the ring-bursting patterns and to distinguish them from the background flow. These patterns are interesting because they do not occur in the wide-gap Taylor-Couette flow systems. The narrow-gap regime is less studied but certainly deserves further attention to gain deeper insights into complex flow dynamics in fluids.
AB - We investigate the Taylor-Couette system where the radius ratio is close to unity. Systematically increasing the Reynolds number, we observe a number of previously known transitions, such as one from the classical Taylor vortex flow (TVF) to wavy vortex flow (WVF) and transition to fully developed turbulence. Prior to the onset of turbulence, we observe intermittent bursting patterns of localized turbulent patches, confirming the experimentally observed pattern of very short wavelength bursts (VSWBs). A striking finding is that, for Reynolds number larger than that for the onset of VSWBs, a new type of intermittently bursting behavior emerges: patterns of azimuthally closed rings of various orders. We call them ring-bursting patterns, which surround the cylinder completely but remain localized and separated in the axial direction through non-turbulent wavy structures. We employ a number of quantitative measures including the cross-flow energy to characterize the ring-bursting patterns and to distinguish them from the background flow. These patterns are interesting because they do not occur in the wide-gap Taylor-Couette flow systems. The narrow-gap regime is less studied but certainly deserves further attention to gain deeper insights into complex flow dynamics in fluids.
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevE.92.053018
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevE.92.053018
M3 - Article
VL - 92
JO - Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear and Soft Matter Physics
JF - Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear and Soft Matter Physics
SN - 1539-3755
IS - 5
M1 - 053018
ER -