Computation of the flow between two rotating coaxial disks

Abstract

A numerical investigation of the problem of rotating disks is made using the Newton–Raphson method. It is shown that the governing equations may exhibit one, three or five solutions. A physical interpretation of the calculated profiles will be presented. The results computed reveal that both Batchelor and Stewartson analysis yields for high Reynolds numbers results which are in agreement with our observations, i.e. the fluid may rotate as a rigid body or the main body of the fluid may be almost at rest, respectively. Occurrence of a two-cell situation at particular branches will be discussed.