Direct numerical simulations of spiral Taylor-Couette turbulence

Pieter Berghout*, Rick J. Dingemans, Xiaojue Zhu, Roberto Verzicco, Richard J.A.M. Stevens, Wim Van Saarloos, Detlef Lohse*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)
60 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We perform direct numerical simulations of spiral turbulent Taylor-Couette (TC) flow for and, i.e. counter-rotation. The aspect ratio of the domain is, with periodic boundary conditions in the axial direction, and the radius ratio. We show that, with decreasing or with decreasing, the formation of a turbulent spiral from an initially 'featureless turbulent' flow can be described by the phenomenology of the Ginzburg-Landau equations, similar as seen in the experimental findings of Prigent et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 89, 2002, 014501) for TC flow at an and in numerical simulations of oblique turbulent bands in plane Couette flow by Rolland & Manneville (Eur. Phys. J., vol. 80, 2011, pp. 529-544). We therefore conclude that the Ginzburg-Landau description also holds when curvature effects play a role, and that the finite-wavelength instability is not a consequence of the no-slip boundary conditions at the upper and lower plates in the experiments. The most unstable axial wavelength in our simulations differs from findings in Prigent et al.where, and so we conclude that depends on the radius ratio. Furthermore, we find that the turbulent spiral is stationary in the reference frame of the mean velocity in the gap, rather than the mean velocity of the two rotating cylinders.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberA18
JournalJournal of fluid mechanics
Volume887
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Mar 2020

Keywords

  • UT-Hybrid-D
  • Rotating turbulence
  • Taylor-Couette flow
  • Pattern formation

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