Hysteretic gravity-wave bifurcation in a highly turbulent swirling flow

We report on experimental observations of a gravity-wave instability forced by a highly turbulent free-surface Taylor–Couette flow. Bistability and hysteresis are observed at the bifurcation from a turbulent base state, with an axisymmetric mean flow, to a turbulent gravity-wave state, with an azimu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of fluid mechanics 2006-03, Vol.551 (1), p.49-62
Main Authors: MUJICA, NICOLÁS, LATHROP, DANIEL P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Exact sciences and technology
Fluid dynamics
Free surfaces
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Hydrodynamic stability
Hydrodynamic waves
Nonlinearity (including bifurcation theory)
Physics
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Summary:We report on experimental observations of a gravity-wave instability forced by a highly turbulent free-surface Taylor–Couette flow. Bistability and hysteresis are observed at the bifurcation from a turbulent base state, with an axisymmetric mean flow, to a turbulent gravity-wave state, with an azimuthal $m\,{=}\,1$ pattern related to the mean flow and free surface. We show that the critical Reynolds number at which the wave state appears is not sharply defined as it depends on turbulent fluctuations.
ISSN:0022-1120
1469-7645
DOI:10.1017/S0022112005007901