Surface switching of rotating fluid in a cylinder

Abstract

We study the surface shape of water in an open cylinder driven by constant rotation of the bottom. Around the critical Reynolds number for the laminar-turbulent transition, the surface deformation, which is of the order of the container size, shows an aperiodic switching phenomenon between an axisymmetric shape and a nonaxisymmetric shape. The axisymmetric shape is observed as a steady state when the Reynolds number is smaller than that in the switching region, while the nonaxisymmetric shape is observed as a (quasi-) periodic state in which the surface rotates at almost constant angular velocity when the Reynolds number is larger than that in the switching region. A detailed analysis for the surface shape suggests that the flow with the nonaxisymmetric shape is turbulent.