The flow in a cylinder driven by the rotation of one endwall for height to
radius ratios around three is examined. Previous experimental observations
suggest that the first mode of instability is a precession of the central v
ortex core, whereas a recent linear stability analysis to general three-dim
ensional perturbations suggests a Hopf bifurcation to a rotating wave at lo
wer rotation rates than those where the precession mode was first detected.
Here, this apparent discrepancy is resolved with the aid of fully nonlinea
r three-dimensional Navier-Stokes computations. (C) 2001 American Institute
of Physics.