Lift Force Acting on a Heavy Solid in a Rotating Liquid-Filled Cavity with a Time-Varying Rotation Rate

The dynamics of a heavy cylindrical body in a liquid-filled horizontal cylindrical cavity with a time-varying rotation rate is experimentally investigated. The body is near the cavity boundary under a centrifugal force and undergoes solid-body rotation together with the liquid and the cavity at a fixed rotation rate. The dependence of the body dynamics on the amplitude and frequency of modulation of the rotation rate is investigated. It is found that at a critical amplitude of modulation (at definite frequency), the heavy body repulses from the cavity boundary and comes into a steady state at some distance from the wall. It is found that the average lift force (repulsive one) is generated by the azimuthal oscillation of the body in the rotating frame of reference and manifests itself at a distance comparable to the thickness of the viscous boundary layer. In the experiments, we observed azimuthal drift of the body due to asymmetric azimuthal oscillations of the body. In the limit of high frequency of the rotation rate modulation, the dependence of the lift force coefficient on the gap between the body and the wall is determined.