On the Development of an Apparatus to Examine Rotating Pipe Flow at High Rotation Numbers

Previous experiments and simulations have demonstrated that rotation can potentially stabilize, and possibly even relaminarize, turbulent flows. However, the mechanism behind this suppression is not well understood. Prior research studies for different classes of flow indicate that hydrodynamic stability theory can utilized to extract important information about the relaminarization process. Rotating pipe flow is a canonical example of this problem, however the stabilization process is particularly sensitive to the rotation rates and Reynolds number. Experimental studies covering this range are rare and do not cover the higher rotation rates where relaminarization may manifest. Here we present progress on the development of a turbulent pipe flow apparatus designed to study a large envelope of Reynolds numbers and rotation rates and provide data facilitating and verifying detailed stability analysis of the problem.