Intermittency in spiral Poiseuille flow

The results of an experimental study on intermittent spiral vortices observed in a counter-rotating Taylor-Couette system with an additional axial through flow, i.e. Spiral-Poiseuille flow, are presented. Convectively unstable upstream propagating spiral vortices appear in the laminar basic flow from an oscillatory instability and in general become absolutely unstable at higher inner cylinder Reynolds number. It is found that at Reynolds numbers above the absolute stability border the spiral vortices become unstable and a complex flow state showing intermittent bursts appears. The intermittent flow state is characterised by an irregular alternation between clearly distinguishable 'laminar' phases corresponding to up-and downstream propagating spiral vortices as well as propagating Taylor vortices. For a sufficiently high rate of axial through flow it is found that intermittency can occur directly from the convectively unstable regime of the upstream propagating spiral vortices.