Taylor vortices in the flow between two coaxial cylinders one of which has a step change in radius
A numerical study of the flow between two coaxial cylinders, where one of the cylinders has a step change in radius, is carried out. The inner cylinder rotates and the outer cylinder is stationary. Computation is restricted to axisymmetric motion since instability in flow between coaxial cylinders is found to first occur in the form of axisymmetric Taylor vortices. In the presence of a step, Taylor vortices are found to appear first in the region where the gap between the cylinders is larger and approximately when the local Taylor number in this region reaches the critical Taylor number for onset of instability. Subsequently, Taylor vortices appear in the region where the gap is narrower, and when the local Taylor number in that region exceeds the critical Taylor number. The Taylor vortices have inward flow at a stationary end plate, and outward flow at an end plate which rotates with the same angular velocity as the inner cylinder. Similar results were obtained by Sprague et al (2008 Phys. Fluids 20 014102) for a step on inner cylinder configuration. The step functions as another end plate, if the step size is large. Whereas, it has no effect, if the step size is small. In most situations, these determine whether the number of Taylor vortices in the wide and narrow gap regions is even or odd. When the end plates rotate synchronously, but at a different speed from the inner cylinder, a change from even to odd or odd to even number of vortices in each region occurs at certain rotation rates of the end plates by sudden appearance or disappearance of a vortex at the end of the column. For a certain range of rotation rates of the end plates, the total number of vortices in the entire fluid column is odd, although the end conditions are symmetrical.