Turbulent Taylor-Couette flow

Results from a numerical study of turbulent Taylor-Couette flow are presented. For the case in which the inner and outer cylinders rotate in opposite senses, the mean flow and Reynolds stress distributions exhibit marked asymmetry about the radial mid-'plane', in contrast to the symmetric distributions found in plane Couette flow. These differences are caused by centrifugal accelerations and mean streamline curvature. The radius of the inner cylinder has a significant influence on the turbulent flow and results are consistent with plane Couette flow being the limit of Taylor-Couette flow as the inner radius becomes infinite. At both inner and outer cylinders a viscous sublayer is observed that obeys the usual linear relationship, U⁺ = y⁺. A log layer is also predicted near both inner and outer cylinders although it is of limited extent due to the comparatively low Reynolds number of the flows. The law of the wall varies significantly from plane Couette flow, is a strong function of radius ratio and is significantly different for the inner and outer cylinders.