Experimental evidence of convective and absolute instabilities in rotating Hagen–Poiseuille flow

What is it about?

Have absolute and convective instabilities been shown before in a rotating pipe flow? The answer is negative. For this reason, we conduct experiments to provide flow visualizations. Additionally, we characterize wavelengths and frequencies thar are in excellent agreement with one theoretical work.

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Why is it important?

Our findings show that convectively and absolutely unstable flow in rotating pipes can be observed. Thus, we give one strategy to detect the onset of absolute instabilities: the deformation of the flow pattern at the pipe inlet because not only the flow downstream, but the whole spatial domain is affected.

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