Abstract

This Letter reports experimental measurements of the velocity $v$ of a Taylor vortex front propagating into an unstable Couette state in rotating Couette-Taylor flow and of the wavelength selected by this dynamical process. The data are consistent with a constant velocity $v\ensuremath{\propto}{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}^{\frac{1}{2}}$, as predicted from an amplitude equation, but are nearly a factor of 2 smaller than that prediction. Recent dynamic experiments on the onset of Taylor vortex flow by Park, Crawford, and Donnelly are explained in terms of vortex-front propagation.

Keywords

Taylor–Couette flowPhysicsVortexFront (military)Couette flowAmplitudeFlow (mathematics)MechanicsWavelengthClassical mechanicsOpticsMeteorology

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Publication Info

Year
1983
Type
article
Volume
50
Issue
20
Pages
1583-1586
Citations
130
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Closed

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Cite This

Guenter Ahlers, David S. Cannell (1983). Vortex-Front Propagation in Rotating Couette-Taylor Flow. Physical Review Letters , 50 (20) , 1583-1586. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.50.1583

Identifiers

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.50.1583

Data Quality

Data completeness: 77%