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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Instability mechanisms and transition scenarios of spiral turbulence in Taylor-Couette flow
Alvaro Meseguer1, Fernando Mellibovsky, Marc Avila
1Departament de Física Aplicada, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. alvar@fa.upc.es
Abstract:
Alternating laminar and turbulent helical bands appearing in shear flows between counterrotating cylinders are accurately computed and the near-wall instability phenomena responsible for their generation identified. The computations show that this intermittent regime can only exist within large domains and that its spiral coherence is not dictated by endwall boundary conditions. A supercritical transition route, consisting of a progressive helical alignment of localized turbulent spots, is carefully studied. Subcritical routes disconnected from secondary laminar flows have also been identified.
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