Hydrodynamic Stability of Taylor-Couette Flow

Abstract

The stability of Couette flow between two cylinders with the outer one stationary and the inner one rotating and also moving with a constant axial velocity is investigated. Both axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric disturbances are considered. The perturbations equations governing the marginal stability state of the flow are derived and solved analytically for the situation when the gap spacing between the cylinders is small compared to the radius.The equations of motion governing flow are also studied.