Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T11:53:41.005Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Viscous incompressible flow between concentric rotating spheres. Part 3. Linear stability and experiments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2006

B. R. Munson
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Engineering Research Institute, Iowa State University, Ames
M. Menguturk
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Abstract

The stability of flow of a viscous incompressible fluid contained between a stationary outer sphere and rotating inner sphere is studied theoretically and experimentally. Previous theoretical results concerning the basic laminar flow (part 1) are compared with experimental results. Small and large Reynolds number results are compared with Stokes-flow and boundary-layer solutions. The effect of the radius ratio of the two spheres is demonstrated. A linearized theory of stability for the laminar flow is formulated in terms of toroidal and poloidal potentials; the differential equations governing these potentials are integrated numerically. It is found that the flow is subcritically unstable and that the observed instability occurs at a Reynolds number close to the critical value of the energy stability theory. Observations of other flow transitions, at higher values of the Reynolds number, are also described. The character of the stability of the spherical annulus flow is found to be strongly dependent on the radius ratio.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1975 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bowden, F. R. & Lord, R. G. 1963 The aerodynamic resistance of a sphere rotating at high speed. Proc. Roy. Soc. A 271, 142.Google Scholar
Bratukhin, IU. K. 1961 On the evaluation of the critical Reynolds number for the flow between two rotating spherical surfaces J. Appl. Math. Mech. 25, 1286.Google Scholar
Chandrasekhar, S. 1961 Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability. Oxford University Press.
Howarth, L. 1954 Note on the boundary layer on a rotating sphere Phil. Mag. 42, 1308.Google Scholar
Khlebutin, G. N. 1968 Stability of fluid motion between rotating and stationary concentric spheres Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Mekh. Zh. i Gaza, 3, 1. (Trans. Fluid Dyn. 3 (1968), 6.)Google Scholar
Menguturk, M. 1974 Ph.D. thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Duke University.
MORALES-GOMEZ, J. 1974 Ph.D. thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico State University.
Munson, B. R. 1970 Ph.D. thesis, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, University of Minnesota.
Munson, B. R. & Joseph, D. D. 1971a Viscous incompressible flow between concentric rotating spheres. Part 1. Basic flow. J. Fluid Mech. 49, 289.Google Scholar
Munson, B. R. & Joseph, D. D. 1971b Viscous incompressible flow between concentric rotating spheres. Part 2. Hydrodynamic stability. J. Fluid Mech. 49, 305.Google Scholar
Pearson, C. E. 1967 A numerical study of the time-dependent viscous flow between two rotating spheres J. Fluid Mech. 28, 323.Google Scholar
Sawatzki, O. & Zierep, J. 1970 Flow between a fixed outer sphere and a concentric rotating inner sphere Acta Mechanica, 9, 13.Google Scholar
Sorokin, M. P., Khlebutin, G. N. & Shaidurov, G. F. 1966 Study of the motion of a liquid between two rotating spherical surfaces J. Appl. Mech. Tech. Phys. 6, 73.Google Scholar
Yakushin, V. I. 1969 The instability of the motion of a liquid in a thin spherical layer Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Mekh. Zh. i Gaza, 4, 1. (Trans. Fluid Dyn. 4 (1972), 1.)Google Scholar
Yakushin, V. I. 1970 Instability of the motion of a liquid between two rotating spherical surfaces Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Mekh. Zh. i Gaza, 5, 4. (Trans. Fluid Dyn. 5 (1973), 4.)Google Scholar
Zierep, J. & Sawatzki, O. 1970 Three dimensional instabilities and vortices between two rotating spheres. 8th Symp. on Naval Hydrodyn.Google Scholar