Eccentric rotating flows: Exact unsteady solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations (Q1090566)

In most flows in a rapidly rotating fluid it is assumed that there is a common axis of rotation leading to fully axisymmetric behaviour. Nevertheless, in practical situations this cannot always be precisely guaranteed, and there is value in understanding the major effects of eccentric flow. A major step was the discovery of an exact solution to the Navier-Stokes equations for a Newtonian fluid by \textit{T. N. G. Abbott} and \textit{K. Walters} [J. Fluid Mech. 40, 205-213 (1970; Zbl 0184.521)] for the flow between infinite discs rotating at the same angular velocity \(\Omega\) ; the nonlinear terms exactly cancelled giving simple linear equations for the eccentric contribution. We extend the model of Abbott and Walters to include time dependent terms, and are able to discover some simple exact solutions of the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations. The basic behaviour remains a shear flow, with each plane parallel to the discs rotating rigidly about an axis which depends both on its position in the fluid and on the time. Although there is no motion perpendicular to the discs, so that diffusion alone acts to bring about changes in the fluid, there is a coupling between shearing forces in different directions which can lead under certain conditions to an eccentric solid body rotation in the fluid.