The rise of a sphere along the axis of a rotating container: Revisiting Maxworthy's 1970 experiment on a computer

The flow induced by a rigid particle rising along the axis of a tall cylindrical container set in rigid-body rotation is computed over a parameter range similar to that explored experimentally by Maxworthy in his famous 1970 experiment.

Computations reveal how the internal characteristics of the Taylor column, those of the inertial wave pattern and the loads acting on the particle vary with the control parameters.

The drag on the particle may be much higher in rotation-dominated configurations than in a non-rotating flow, but may become lower in inertia-dominated configurations. Axial confinement is shown to increase dramatically the drag in rapidly rotating configurations, unless the container is unreasonably tall. Once this confinement effect is made negligibly small, the drag agrees well with semi-analytical laws over a wide range of flow conditions, revealing the origin of the persistent gap between Maxworthy’s results and theoretical predictions.