Destabilizing Taylor-Couette flow with suction

TL;DR

This paper investigates how radial fluid injection and suction influence Taylor-Couette flow, revealing that such fluxes can destabilize otherwise stable flows, with implications for various natural and engineering systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates that radial flux can induce linear instability in Taylor-Couette flow and explores nonlinear stability aspects using the energy stability method.

Findings

Radial injection and suction destabilize stable Taylor-Couette flows.

Flow becomes linearly unstable with radial flux, even in stable shear conditions.

Implications for drag reduction, astrophysical disks, and Earth's polar vortex.

Abstract

We consider the effect of radial fluid injection and suction on Taylor-Couette flow. Injection at the outer cylinder and suction at the inner cylinder generally results in a linearly unstable steady spiralling flow, even for cylindrical shears that are linearly stable in the absence of a radial flux. We study nonlinear aspects of the unstable motions with the energy stability method. Our results, though specialized, may have implications for drag reduction by suction, accretion in astrophysical disks, and perhaps even in the flow in the earth's polar vortex.