Abstract
The conditions of occurrence and characteristic frequencies (frequency of travelling azimuthal waves, and their frequency of modulation in the laboratory or rotating frames) of modulated wavy -Taylor-vortex flow (MWVF) between two concentric spheres with the inner sphere rotating are investigated by flow visualization (aluminum-flake method) and spectral measurements by means of light scattered by suspended aluminum flakes. Also, a modal analysis of MWVF is made, and the relations between these characteristic frequencies are considered. Quantitative data concerning the conditions for the occurrence of MWVF and dependence of these characteristic frequencies on Reynolds number are obtained. The relations between these characteristic frequencies of the spherical Couette flow system are found to be different from those in a circular Couette flow system.
