title: Circular Couette cell for two-dimensional fluid dynamics experiments.
abstract: A novel experiment to investigate fluid dynamics in quasi-two-dimensional flows has been built. A soap film is suspended horizontally in an annular channel with a rotating outer boundary, providing mean flow shear, and a vortex array is forced electromagnetically. The experiment will investigate sheared flow stability and the effect of mean flow shear on local vorticity and coherent structures. Particle image velocimetry measurements demonstrate the production of mean flow shear and induced vortices.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Seattle University, Seattle, WA 98122, USA. fontanap@seattleu.edu
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Fontana
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kearney-Fischer
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: J V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Ulmen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Windell