Abstract
The flow in the clearance between a rotating disk and the casing was studied by the use of a flow visualization technique. The experiment was conducted for several clearance ratios s/R from 0.0080 to 0.120. At large clearance ratios, three different types of instability were observed near the casing wall. The two of these instability were similar to the instability in the Ekman layer. At small clearance ratios, only one type of instability was observed. It was found that the boundary layer on the rotating disk was stable for exceedingly large values of the Reynolds number. The effect of throughflow on the stability of the flow was examined.
