Destabilizing Taylor–Couette flow with suction

We consider the effect of radial fluid injection and suction on Taylor–Couette flow. Injection at the outer cylinder and suction at the inner cylinder generally result in a linearly unstable, steady, spiraling flow, even for cylindrical shears that are linearly stable in the absence of a radial flux. We study nonlinear aspects of the unstable motions with the energy stability method. Our results, though specialized, may have implications for drag reduction by suction, accretion in astrophysical disks, and perhaps even in the flow in Earth’s polar vortex.