title: Instability mechanisms and transition scenarios of spiral turbulence in Taylor-Couette flow.
abstract: Alternating laminar and turbulent helical bands appearing in shear flows between counterrotating cylinders are accurately computed and the near-wall instability phenomena responsible for their generation identified. The computations show that this intermittent regime can only exist within large domains and that its spiral coherence is not dictated by endwall boundary conditions. A supercritical transition route, consisting of a progressive helical alignment of localized turbulent spots, is carefully studied. Subcritical routes disconnected from secondary laminar flows have also been identified.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Física Aplicada, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. alvar@fa.upc.es
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meseguer
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mellibovsky
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Avila
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marques
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D012212:Rheology / Q000379:methods*