TRANSLATION OF A SPHERE IN A ROTATING VISCOUS-FLUID - A NUMERICAL STUDY

The translation of a sphere moving along the axis of a rotating viscous fluid is studied by the finite difference method at moderate Reynolds (up to R = 500) and Taylor (up to T = 100) numbers. Suppression of the separation is observed with increasing rotation parameter T. The drag coefficient is also presented. It is observed that the drag coefficient is less than that with no rotation in the range 0 < N < 0.7, where N = 2T/R is the inverse Rossby ;lumber. The same phenomenon was observed experimentally by Maxworthy in the range 0 < N < 0.75 +/- 0.03.