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Numerical simulation of instabilities and secondary regimes in spherical couette flow

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Abstract

In all previous numerical investigations of spherical Couette flow only axisymmetric regimes were considered. At the same time, in experiments [1–4] it was found that when both spheres rotate and the layer is thin centrifugal instability of the main flow leads to the appearance of nonaxisymmetric secondary flows of the azimuthal traveling wave type. The results of an initial numerical investigation of these flows are presented below. Solving the linear problem of the stability of the main flow and simulating the secondary flows on the basis of the complete nonlinear Navier-Stokes equations has made it possible to supplement and explain many of the results obtained experimentally. The type of bifurcation and the structure of the disturbances whose growth leads to the appearance of three-dimensional nonstationary flows are determined, and the transitions between different secondary regimes in the region of weak supercriticality are described.

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Authors
  1. O. Yu. Zikanov
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Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 3–15, January–February, 1995.

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Zikanov, O.Y. Numerical simulation of instabilities and secondary regimes in spherical couette flow. Fluid Dyn 30, 1–10 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02029920

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