Experimental Study of the Connection Between the Hydrodynamic and Phase-Transition Descriptions of the Couette-Taylor Instability

摘要

The laser doppler velocimetry technique has been used to measure the radial flow velocity in the Taylor vortex flow at several Taylor numbers close to and above the critical value. The first four harmonics of the flow field have been analyzed using a model described by Davey. The analysis demonstrates that the amplitude of the first harmonic of the super-critical flow field can be regarded as the ''order parameter'' of the transition from the laminar Couette flow to the Taylor vortex flow. This transition is described by a generalized Landau theory for classical second order mean-field phase transitions. The analysis of the results of carefully performed experiments not only confirms the findings of earlier experimental work, but in addition all the significant parameters of the full Davey model for this hydrodynamic instability are determined. (ERA citation 11:054549)