The Couette-Taylor problem (Q1326228)

Contrary to recent \textit{E. L. Koschmieder}'s experimentally oriented book [Bernard cells and Taylor vortices (1993; Zbl 0780.76003)], the present monograph applies theoretical bifurcation and symmetry breaking arguments to explain the mechanism of pattern formation and the appearance of complicated dynamics, eventually leading to turbulence in fluid flow. The very special Couette-Taylor problem with its rich variety of spatial and temporal symmetries, serves as a paradigm for more complicated applications. Center manifold and normal form theories are the main tools providing a solid mathematical basis for the derivation of the amplitude equations, which locally govern the nonlinear solution in the neighborhood of the linear stability threshold of some basic flows. Center manifold theory (better known to physicists as slaving principle or adiabatic elimination) provides the mathematical justification the amplitude equation approach started by Landau and continued by Stuart and his school. Without a priori knowledge of the various scalings, center manifold theory allows (in principle) the computation of amplitude equations up to arbitrary order and for arbitrary degeneracy. For higher codimension problems, symbolic computation schemes are employed to cope with the mounting algebra. The aim of this book is to show how these tools apply in the special case of Couette-Taylor flow and give qualitative results even without explicitly computing the coefficients of the amplitude equations. With the coefficients computed numerically, the corresponding amplitude equations usually provide a qualitative description for parameters even outside their strict range of validity and allow a theoretical classification of experimentally found patterns. Avoiding mathematical complications, about two thirds of the book deal with flows periodic in axial direction such that only finitely many modes can become unstable. Primary steady-state, as well as Hopf bifurcations from Couette flow leading to stationary Taylor vortex flow and to time- periodic spiral waves (traveling waves) and ribbons (standing waves), are discussed. Some simple degenerate situations due to nonlinear coefficients resulting in higher-order Landau equations are also studied. Experimentally observed more complicated patterns near the primary stability limit suggest that such regimes could be reached via higher codimension bifurcations where two or more critical modes are competing. Studying the interaction between a steady and oscillating pure mode, or the interaction between two oscillating pure modes, leads to complicated spatio-temporal structures such as interpenetrating spirals. A separate chapter is devoted to imperfections near primary bifurcation. General secondary bifurcations are discussed by means of a group orbit analysis, leading to flows such as wavy vortices, wavy spirals, modulated wavy vortices and several flows which have not necessarily been observed yet. By removing the axial periodicity, large-scale effects are treated in the last two chapters. Here the mathematical research is still at the frontier, but significant advances are documented for formally deriving the more or less heuristically obtained Ginzburg-Landau envelope equation directly from the Navier-Stokes equations. Specifying the temporal behavior, spatially quasi-periodic, as well as defect solutions, are obtained. However, all stability results in this book are essentially restricted to spatially periodic solutions. For the small gap case, the last chapter gives some envelope equation results for the structure and dynamics of the spatially anisotropic, three-dimensional flow near criticality.