A numerical and experimental investigation of a new solution in the Taylor vortex problem

Abstract

We present the results of a numerical and experimental study of the five-cell flow in the Taylor vortex problem. There is evidence for a new five-cell solution which is different in nature to the previously recorded solution. We find that there is an exchange in stability between the two solutions which we explain in terms of bifurcation theory. Streamline plots of the numerical results are compared with photographs of the observed flow. The agreement between the calculations and experiments is good. We use the Schaeffer homotopy to study the new solution in the periodic model. The results show that the new solution is not connected in any continuous manner to the trivial Couette flow solution.