Dynamical responses of non-isothermal flow between two independently rotating disks with time-dependent wall conditions

The present work develops a theoretical model of rotational convection and uses it to investigate the dynamical responses of the flow and heat transfer between two disks rotating at different rates under the influences of time-dependent disturbances. The unsteady non-isothermal flow model is formulated by extending a recently developed steady-state similarity model of axi-symmetric rotational convection. In the new model all the rotation-induced buoyancy forces are considered. Using one disk as reference, effects of the time-dependent changes in wall temperature or rotating rate of the other disk on the flow and heat transfer are explored. Various rotational modes with asymptotic or fluctuating change in boundary condition of temperature or disk rotation are studied. The present time-dependent model for this non-isothermal rotating flow is numerically solved by a finite-difference method. By using the present results, the complicated flow and heat transfer mechanisms with thermal-flow coupling in the class of time-dependent rotational convection are manifested.