Transition solutions in the Taylor problem (Q1207550)

In the Taylor problem, a viscous incompressible fluid is contained between two concentric rotating cylinders. In this paper, the author considers the rotating cylinders to be infinite, and considers flows that are periodic in the axial variable. In cylindrical coordinates, solutions are sought that are independent of the angular variable. The simplest such motion, in which the fluid rotates uniformly, is called Couette flow. Assuming the gap between the cylinders to be small, a system of partial differential equations is derived from the Navier-Stokes equations. From these equations, amplitude equations are formulated. Solutions of the amplitude equations determine solutions of the small-gap system that are close to the trivial solution corresponding to Couette flow, for Taylor numbers in a certain range related to an eigenvalue of the linearized equations. The amplitude equations also describe transition solutions which connect the unstable Couette flow solution to the nontrivial solutions. The focus of the analysis of the amplitude equations is on flows with two and four cells. The role of asymmetries observed in experiments is explored through parameters in the amplitude equations.