Stability of Flow Between Arbitrarily Spaced Concentric Cylindrical Surfaces Including the Effect of a Radial Temperature Gradient

1964 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Walowit ◽  
S. Tsao ◽  
R. C. DiPrima

The stability of Couette flow and flow due to an azimuthal pressure gradient between arbitrarily spaced concentric cylindrical surfaces is investigated. The stability problems are solved by using the Galerkin method in conjunction with a simple set of polynomial expansion functions. Results are given for a wide range of spacings. For Couette flow, in the case that the cylinders rotate in the same direction, a simple formula for predicting the critical speed is derived. The effect of a radial temperature gradient on the stability of Couette flow is also considered. It is found that positive and negative temperature gradients are destabilizing and stabilizing, respectively.

2017 ◽  
Vol 818 ◽  
pp. 319-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleg N. Kirillov ◽  
Innocent Mutabazi

We perform a linearized local stability analysis for short-wavelength perturbations of a circular Couette flow with a radial temperature gradient. Axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric perturbations are considered and both the thermal diffusivity and the kinematic viscosity of the fluid are taken into account. The effect of asymmetry of the heating both on centrifugally unstable flows and on the onset of instabilities of centrifugally stable flows, including flows with a Keplerian shear profile, is thoroughly investigated. It is found that an inward temperature gradient destabilizes the Rayleigh-stable flow either via Hopf bifurcation if the liquid is a very good heat conductor or via steady state bifurcation if viscosity prevails over the thermal conductance.


1977 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chin-Hsiu Li

The influence of variable density on the stability of the flow between two rotating cylinders is re-examined. The instability is shown to set in as an oscillatory secondary flow which was overlooked by previous investigators. Results indicate that the radial temperature gradient destabilizes the flow if the outer cylinder is hotter than the inner one, and the destabilizing effect is enhanced if the Prandtl number is high. For the case where the inner cylinder is hotter than the outer one, the stabilizing effect due to the temperature gradient is shown to be weak for any Prandtl number. This modifies previous results which predicted a very high stabilizing effect due to the temperature gradient. The bifurcating structure of the stability curve is shown.


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