Affiliations: EcoTopia Science Institute, Nagoya University, Nagoya,
464-8603, Japan. E-mail: t-watanabe@esi.nagoya-u.ac.jp | Faculty of Science and Technology, Meijo University,
Nagoya, 468-8502, Japan | Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Nagano National
College of Technology, Nagano, 381-8550, Japan
Abstract: This paper presents our numerical and experimental results of the
bifurcation found in Taylor-Couette system with a free surface. The lengths of
the two concentric cylinders are finite and their axes are parallel to the
direction of the gravitational force. When the end walls of the cylinders are
fixed and stationary, numerical and experimental studies have shown that the
flow has multiple patterns depending on the cylinder lengths and the Reynolds
numbers. Experimental studies on flows with free surfaces also gave various
flow modes. Our result shows that the measured and predicted time-dependent
displacements of the free surface are in favorable agreement. In case of the
cylinder length comparable with the gap width between the cylinders, gradual
accelerations of the inner cylinder bring the normal mode flows with one, three
and five toroidal vortices. The exchanges of stabilities between these flow
modes are summarized in a phase diagram.
