STUDY OF ROTATIONAL FLOW OF FLUIDS

The general object of the study is to model an important field of geophysical fluid mechanics in the laboratory. The particular problem studied is the internal fluid motion for a spherical cavity undergoing combined rotation and precession. A spin apparatus was designed and constructed. The power source is a printed-circuit motor driven through slip rings. The design allows the spin axis of a rotor up to nine inches in diameter to be positioned anywhere between the vertical and the horizontal directions. The apparatus is adequately rigid and provides very smooth rotation at speeds up to several thousand RPM. Photographs of the motion of a fluid in a small plexiglas sphere were taken. Interesting results were obtained with the precession and spin over 90 degrees apart. (Author)