Statistics, plumes and azimuthally traveling waves in ultimate Taylor-Couette turbulent vortices

TL;DR

This study investigates how large-scale Taylor vortices influence small-scale turbulence and flow organization in highly turbulent Taylor-Couette flow, revealing flow structures and traveling waves similar to those in Rayleigh-Bénard convection.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed experimental analysis of azimuthally traveling waves in ultimate Taylor-Couette turbulence, highlighting their presence beyond classical regimes.

Findings

Flow regions with Taylor vortices show high angular momentum transport.

Intermittent bursts in local Nusselt number indicate efficient momentum transfer.

Azimuthally traveling waves are detected superimposed on turbulent vortices.

Abstract

In this paper, we experimentally study the influence of large-scale Taylor rolls on the small-scale statistics and the flow organization in fully turbulent Taylor-Couette flow {for Reynolds numbers up to $\text{Re}_S=3\times 10^5$}. The velocity field in the gap confined by coaxial and independently rotating cylinders at a radius ratio of $\eta=0.714$ is measured using planar {particle image velocimetry} in horizontal planes at different cylinder heights. Flow regions with and without prominent Taylor vortices are compared. We show that the local angular momentum transport (expressed in terms of a Nusselt number) mainly takes place in the regions of the vortex in- and outflow, where the radial and azimuthal velocity components are highly correlated. The efficient momentum transfer is reflected in intermittent bursts, which becomes visible in the exponential tails of the probability density functions of the local Nusselt number. In addition, by calculating azimuthal energy co-spectra, small-scale plumes are revealed to be the underlying structure of these bursts. These flow features are very similar to the one observed in Rayleigh-B\'{e}nard convection, which emphasizes the analogies of these both systems. By performing a {complex proper orthogonal decomposition}, we remarkably detect azimuthally traveling waves superimposed on the turbulent Taylor vortices, not only in the classical but also in the ultimate regime. This very large-scale flow pattern{,} which is most pronounced at the axial location of the vortex center, is similar to the well-known wavy Taylor vortex flow{,} which has comparable wave speeds, but much larger azimuthal wave numbers.