Pulsating spiral Poiseuille flow

Direct numerical simulation of the Navier–Stokes equations has been used to investigate the Taylor–Couette flow with an imposed pulsatile axial pressure gradient resulting in a spiral Poiseuille flow modulated by an oscillating forcing. Keeping the Reynolds and Taylor numbers constant, both the amplitude and frequency of the oscillating component are varied to span a small region of the phase space. In the narrow-gap geometry considered in this study, the base flow (spiral Poiseuille flow) is in the turbulent regime whereas the oscillating component is laminar. It has been found that the effect of the oscillation is to induce a global flow laminarization provided the frequency is sufficiently small (at constant amplitude) or the amplitude is sufficiently large (at constant frequency). The coupling between steady and oscillating components has been analysed with the help of long-time and phase-averaged statistics. The reverse transition mechanism has been associated to an anisotropic modification of the Reynolds stress tensor components, which has been shown to be caused by an alteration of the pressure–strain interaction.