Symmetry-breaking of radially outgoing flow between two parallel disks

摘要

Instability and transition of radially outgoing flow between two parallel disks with two symmetrically attached inlet pipes through which fluid conies in are investigated theoretically and experimentally. It is assumed that the flow field is incompressible and axisymmetric. The flow is steady and symmetric on the center line between the two disks at small Reynolds numbers, but becomes asymmetric above a critical Reynolds number. Numerical simulations and the linear stability analysis reveal that steady asymmetric flows result from the instability of the steady symmetric flow. The axisymmetry and the transition were confirmed in our experiments with flow visualization.