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The Taylor column problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

S.J. Jacobs
S.J. Jacobs
Affiliation:
Pierce Hall, Harvard University
Present address: Department of Meteorology and Oceanography, University of Michigan.
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Abstract

We consider here flow past an obstacle on the lower of two rotating horizontal planes which bound a viscous fluid. It is found that when the Taylor number is large viscous effects are confined to Ekman boundary layers on the solid surfaces and to a free shear layer coincident with the vertical cylinder circumscribing the bottom obstacle. The flow in the main body of the fluid outside the cylinder proves to be two-dimensional with zero relative vorticity, while inside the cylinder the fluid is stagnant in the rotating frame. The shear layer provides a continuous transition between the exterior and interior of the cylinder, and in addition provides a means by which fluid from the Ekman layers on the horizontal planes is exchanged with fluid outside the Ekman layers and exterior to the circumscribing cylinder. The predicted flow proves to be in agreement with many of the experimental results.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , December 1964 , pp. 581 - 591
Copyright
© 1964 Cambridge University Press

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