Stability of Viscous Flow Past a Rotating Cylinder

Abstract

That high-alpha onset occurs via monotonically growing three-dimensional disturbances suggests existence of three-dimensional steady solutions. Such solutions would correspond to three-dimensional deformations of axisymmetric toroidal vortices generated by steady cylinder rotation in an otherwise quiescent fluid (i.e., with no mean flow). The existence of such three-dimensional steady flows would explain the observations of Jaminet and Van Atta that the flow in the wake of a rotating cylinder is steady at high alpha.