INSTABILITY OF PULSED FLOWS IN A TAYLOR-C OUETTE GEOMETRY

The linear stability of a pulsed flow in a Taylor-Couette geometry, wi th the inner and outer cylinders oscillating respectively at the angul ar velocities Omega 0 cos(omega t) and epsilon Omega(0) cos(omega t), is investigated for three values of the parameter epsilon = -1, 0 and 1. For all values of epsilon: there is a frequency for which the syste m is the most unstable; stabilization is found in the regimes of high and low frequencies. A detailed analysis of the low frequency regime i s undertaken to explain the differences between the present results an d those for the classical Taylor-Couette problem.