Spectral solution of the Navier-Stokes equations for rotating flows (Q2737511)

Direct numerical simulation by spectral methods are used to study the instabilities in Ekman and Bödewadt layers at the transition to time-dependent regimes. The physical phenomena are characteristic of rotating flows with walls, and the cavities possess elementary geometries that are relevant to turbine applications and to typical configurations studied in fundamental investigations and in experiments. The three-dimensional Chebyshev-Fourier collocation method is based on a projection scheme to solve the coupled equations for velocity and pressure. The method developed earlier for annular domains is extended to fully cylindrical domains with an axis of rotation. A special development is required to deal with singular behaviour of coefficients when the radius tends to zero. The investigation is carried out for two generic configurations: forced throughflow in a rotating cavity, and the confined flow driven by differential rotation inside a rotor-stator cavity. Depending on the aspect ratio and on Reynolds number, counter-rotating rolls can superimpose spiral structures on the boundary layer near the disks. The characteristic parameters of perturbations (wavelength, frequency, phase velocity, inclination of the spiral) are shown to be relevant to instabilities in rotating flows.