New experimental methods for turbulent spots and turbulent spirals in the Taylor-Couette flow

Abstract

 The flow between concentrically counter-rotating circular cylinders is investigated experimentally with respect to the appearance of turbulent spots, combining two new methods, based on digital image processing. The simultaneous visualization of the transition to turbulence in the whole flow field in the gap between the two cylinders leads to a qualitative understanding of the phenomenon of turbulent spots. Quantitative results about spiral turbulence are obtained from measurements based on a time-resolved technique introducing a special method of image processing for long sequences of video frames. Variations of the gap width between the cylinders and the investigation of different boundary conditions at the end plates of the rotating cylinders allow conclusions concerning the importance of locally defined parameters of the flow field.