Spherical couette flow: Transitions and onset of chaos

The results are given of an experimental investigation of the transition to chaos and of the properties of the chaotic regimes in a wide range of Reynolds numbers: 460 Re 3200 7Re₀. Estimates of the probability dimension of the attractors and Lyapunov exponents and the exponential damping of the highest-frequency part of the spectrum indicate a deterministic nature of the chaos in the considered range of Re. It is noted that in one and the same range of Re values the route to chaos is not unique and can depend on the prehistory of the flow development; the simultaneous existence of chaotic and regular regimes for fixed values of the parameters is also noted.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 10–18, January–February, 1991.