Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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DY: Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 46: Poster

DY 46.96: Poster

Thursday, March 30, 2006, 16:00–18:00, P1

A Truncated System for Taylor-Couette Flow in Finite Gaps — •Hans-Reinhard Berger — Technische Universität, Institut für Physik, D-09107 Chemnitz

The Taylor-Couette flow of viscous fluids is examined by a low-dimensional truncated expansion using trigonometric functions. The influence of gap width between the cylinders is included up to second order in the gap width. By comparing the results for the critical Taylor number obtained from the series expansion with numerical results from linear stability calculation of the original hydrodynamic equations, the truncation is validated with an error of less than two percent. It is found that increasing gap width has a stabilizing influence on the laminar flow compared with results of the small-gap approximation. The results of the stability analysis of the truncated system of ordinary differential equations describe well the transition from laminar to Taylor-vortex flow, but no further bifurcations to more complex flows are found. The reason for this behaviour is assumed to be due to the omission of non-axisymmetric disturbances.