TY - JOUR AU1 - Tanaka, Ryo AU2 - Kawata, Takuya AU3 - Tsukahara, Takahiro AB - A counter-rotating Taylor–Couette flow with relatively small radius ratios of $$\eta = 0.2$$ η = 0.2 –0.5 was investigated over a wide range of the Reynolds number, from laminar to turbulent regime, by means of three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. We investigated the $$\eta $$ η dependence of the flow structure and determined a critical value between $$\eta =0.2$$ η = 0.2 and 0.3, below which, the stable outer cylinder side exhibited a modal structure that was different from the Taylor-vortex flow on the inner side. At $$\eta \ge 0.3$$ η ≥ 0.3 , the Taylor-vortex on the unstable inner side dominated the entire flow field between the cylinders, whose footprints were observed in the vicinity of the outer cylinder wall. However, for $$\eta =0.2$$ η = 0.2 , the influence from the inner side was limited up to the centre of the cylinder gap. Moreover, on the stable outer cylinder side, there appeared a modal structure that was axially homogeneous, azimuthally periodic, and similar to the Tollmien–Schlichting instability wave. As the Reynolds number increased with a fixed $$\eta =0.2$$ η = 0.2 , the modal structure changed its azimuthal wavenumber and thickened radially in the wall unit. Although the Reynolds shear stress on the outer side remained approximately zero, the intensity of the velocity fluctuations was comparable to the Taylor-vortex flows in the central part. TI - DNS of Taylor–Couette flow between counter-rotating cylinders at small radius ratio JF - International Journal of Advances in Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics DO - 10.1007/s12572-018-0217-x DA - 2018-06-01 UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/dns-of-taylor-couette-flow-between-counter-rotating-cylinders-at-small-RgBu8FdgPS SP - 159 EP - 170 VL - 10 IS - 2 DP - DeepDyve ER -