Hydrodynamic turbulence in quasi-Keplerian rotating flows

Abstract

We report a direct-numerical-simulation study of Taylor-Couette flow in the quasi-Keplerian regime at shear Reynolds numbers up to $\mathcal{O}(10^5)$. Quasi-Keplerian rotating flow has been investigated for decades as a simplified model system to study the origin of turbulence in accretion disks that is not fully understood. The flow in this study is axially periodic and thus the experimental end-wall effects on the stability of the flow are avoided. Using optimal linear perturbations as initial conditions, our simulations find no sustained turbulence: the strong initial perturbations distort the velocity profile and trigger turbulence that eventually decays.

14 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (8)

• High Reynolds number Taylor-Couette turbulence
• Hydrodynamic turbulence cannot transport angular momentum effectively in astrophysical disks
• Stability and angular-momentum transport of fluid flows between corotating cylinders
• Experimental analysis of the Strato-rotational Instability in a cylindrical Couette flow
• On self-sustaining processes in Rayleigh-stable rotating plane Couette flows and subcritical transition to turbulence in accretion disks
• Boundary-layer turbulence in experiments of quasi-Keplerian flows
• The Influence of Horizontal Boundaries on Ekman Circulation and Angular Momentum Transport in a Cylindrical Annulus
• Azimuthal velocity profiles in Rayleigh-stable Taylor-Couette flow and implied axial angular momentum transport

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Dynamo Action in a Quasi-Keplerian Taylor-Couette Flow
• nsCouette -- A high-performance code for direct numerical simulations of turbulent Taylor-Couette flow
• Taylor-Couette flow for astrophysical purposes
• Routes to turbulence in Taylor-Couette flow
• A Vorticity-Preserving Hydrodynamical Scheme for Modeling Accretion Disk Flows
• Hydrodynamical instability with noise in the Keplerian accretion discs: Modified Landau equation
• Subcritical transition to turbulence in accretion disc boundary layer
• Variational construction of tubular and toroidal streamsurfaces for flow visualization
• Effect of gap width on turbulent transition in Taylor-Couette flow
• The competition between the hydrodynamic instability from noise and magnetorotational instability in the Keplerian disks