| Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 44, Number 5, December I 1998
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 599 - 605 | |
| Section | Classical areas of phenomenology | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i1998-00515-8 | |
| Published online | 01 September 2002 | |
Effects of spatial disorder on the transition to Taylor vortex flow
Department of Physics and Center for Nonlinear and Complex
Systems, Duke University - Durham, North Carolina 27708-0305, USA
Received:
13
May
1998
Accepted:
9
October
1998
Using particle imaging velocimetry (PIV), we investigate the effects
of fixed spatial disorder in a Taylor-Couette system near the onset of
Taylor-Vortex flow. We induce small spatially frozen variations in
the local control parameter of the system by varying the radius of
the inner cylinder along the cylinder axis, y. For a smooth inner
cylinder the bifurcation to Taylor vortex rolls is instrumentally
sharp. With a 
variation in the local Reynolds number Re(y)
we find localized rolls with an amplitude that varies exponentially in
the spatially averaged Re. Smoothed bifurcations and localized
flows have been seen in recent numerical studies of systems with
spatially varying control parameters and in convection of a fluid in a
porous medium. The secondary transition to wavy flow is significantly
elevated in the system with spatially varying Re(y).
PACS: 47.20.-k – Hydrodynamic stability / 47.32.-y – Rotational flow and vorticity / 47.54.+r – Pattern selection; pattern formation
© EDP Sciences, 1998
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