Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published March 1965 | Published
Journal Article Open

Transition in circular Couette flow

Coles, Donald

Abstract

Two distinct kinds of transition have been identified in Couette flow between concentric rotating cylinders. The first, which will be called transition by spectral evolution, is characteristic of the motion when the inner cylinder has a larger angular velocity than the outer one. As the speed increases, a succession of secondary modes is excited; the first is the Taylor motion (periodic in the axial direction), and the second is a pattern of travelling waves (periodic in the circumferential direction). Higher modes correspond to harmonics of the two fundamental frequencies of the doubly-periodic flow. This kind of transition may be viewed as a cascade process in which energy is transferred by non-linear interactions through a discrete spectrum to progressively higher frequencies in a two-dimensional wave-number space. At sufficiently large Reynolds numbers the discrete spectrum changes gradually and reversibly to a continuous one by broadening of the initially sharp spectral lines.

Additional Information

© 1965 Cambridge University Press. Received 12 June 1964. Published online: 28 March 2006. The experimental research reported in this paper was supported from 1955 to 1961 by the National Science Foundation, and from 1961 to 1963 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This support is gratefully acknowledged. Preparation of the manuscript and figures was aided by funds made available by G. Carrier in connexion with contract Nonr-1866(20). Some of the results have previously been reported at a meeting of the Fluid Dynamics Division of the American Physical Society in San Diego in 1958, at the Tenth International Congress for Applied Mechanics in Stresa, Italy, in 1960, and at an International Colloquium on Turbulence in Marseilles, France, in 1961.

Attached Files

Published - Coles_1965p385.pdf

Files

Coles_1965p385.pdf
Files (11.2 MB)
Name Size Download all
md5:aedb3990e99e747652ad75545a66bd12
11.2 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023