Bifurcation induced by the aspect ratio in a turbulent von Kármán swirling flow

We evaluate the effect of the aspect ratio, i.e., the distance between the propellers H divided by the diameter D, on the slow dynamics of a von Kármán swirling flow driven by two propellers in a closed cylinder. We use a cell with a fixed diameter D but where the distance between the propellers can be turned continuously and where the inertia from the propellers can also be changed using different gears. No change on the dynamics is observed when the momentum of inertia is modified. Some dramatic changes of the shear layer position are observed modifying the aspect ratio Γ=H/D. A bifurcation of the shear layer position appears. Whereas for low Γ the shear layer position has a smooth evolution when turning the asymmetry between the rotation frequency of the propellers, for high Γ the transition becomes abrupt and a symmetry breaking appears. Secondly we observe that the spontaneous reversals with large residence times already observed in this experiment for Γ=1 [de la Torre and Burguete, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 054101 (2007)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.99.054101] exist only in a narrow window of aspect ratio. We show using an experimental study of the mean flow structure and a numerical approach based on a Langevin equation with colored noise that the shear layer position seems to be decided by the mean flow structure, whereas the reversals are linked to the spatial distribution of the turbulent fluctuations in the cell.