Global stability of a lid-driven cavity with throughflow: Flow visualization studies

C. K. Aidun, N. G. Triantafillopoulos and J. D. Benson

Citation: Physics of Fluids A: Fluid Dynamics 3, 2081 (1991); doi: 10.1063/1.857891

View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.857891
View Table of Contents: https://aip.scitation.org/toc/pfa/3/9
Published by the American Institute of Physics

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Global stability of a lid-driven cavity with throughflow: Flow
visualization studies
C. K. Aiduma) N. G. Triantafillopoulos, and J. D. Benson
Institute of Paper Science and Technology, and School of Mechanical Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology. 575 Fourteenth Street, N. W;, Atlanta, Georgia 30318
(Received 16 April 1990; accepted 14 May 199 1)
Flow visualization studies of a lid-driven cavity (LDC) with a small amount of throughflow
reveal multiple steady states at low cavity Reynolds numbers. These results show that
the well-known LDC flow, which consists of a primary eddy and secondary corner eddies, is
only locally stable, becomes globally unstable, and competes with at least three other
steady states before being replaced by a time-periodic flow. The small amount of throughflow
present in this system seems to have no qualitative effect on the fluid flow characteristics.
These observations suggest that multiple stable steady states may also exist in closed LDC’s.
Since stability properties of the closed LDC flows are virtually unexplored, the present
flow visualization results are interpreted by first proposing an expected behavior of an idealized
(free-slip end walls) LDC and then treating the problem at hand as a perturbation of
the ideal case. The results also suggest that there are nonunique and competing sequences of
transitions that lead the flow in a LDC from laminar steady state toward turbulence.

I. INTRODUCTION
Understanding the stability properties of flow in a lid-
driven cavity (LDC) is important because of fundamental
as well as practical reasons. This system represents a sim-
plified version of many manufacturing devices. Short-dwell
coaters’ and flexible blade coaters2 used for production of
high-grade paper and photographic films, and melt-spin-
ning processes in forming continuous metal ribbons of mi-
crocrystalline material3 are a few examples. Flow instabil-
ity in the cavity of these processes could have adverse
effects on the quality of the manufactured product. Let us
examine one of these systems in detail.
The trend toward increasing machine speed while re-
ducing coat weight with a short-dwell coater (Fig. 1) has
been hindered by the difficulty in maintaining uniform
cross-directional coat weight profile, especially in the pro-
duction of lightweight coated papers. Spatially and tempo-
rally periodic, sometimes even random, coating thickness
variations create an uneven coat weight profile, which, in
its extreme case, appears as a patterned surface character-
ized by streaks running along the machine direction. Our
experiments with short-dwell coaters show that streaks 2-8
cm in width, also called patches, comprise areas of com-
paratively low film thickness that are independent of the
substrate’s surface. The hydrodynamic characteristics of
this system are not well understood. There are reports that
disturbance of the coating head can permanently change
the coated film characteristics-a condition that cannot be
tolerated in the manufacturing of commercial products. In
particular, it is suggested4 that three-dimensional hydrody-
namic instabilities inside the pond may be responsible for,
and hence correlate with, wet-film thickness variations
across the machine direction. Disturbances in the pond can
be transported, influencing the mass and momentum trans-
fer into the blade nip and, consequently, affecting coat
weight and its uniformity. There is a fundamental differ-
ence between the characteristics of the layer entering the
blade nip of a short-dwell coater compared to the nearly
irrotational layer’ in a blade coater with a roll applicator
system. In the case of a short-dwell coater, a viscous layer
forms near the dynamic contact line, upstream of the
blade. This layer is susceptible to instabiIity and interaction
with the three-dimensional patterns that form when the
nearly irrotational eddies inside the pond destabilize. These
interactions generate a nonuniform wavy layer entering the
blade nip. This in turn can have adverse effects on the coat
weight profile.
The idea that the flow inside the pond upstream of the
blade influences the coating surface quality and the coat
weight distribution was first suggested by Higgins6 during
experimental investigation of puddle coaters, which are
characterized by a free surface pool of liquid that forms
upstream of the blade. Extensive experiments with short-
dwell coaters4 also indicate that the flow in the pond in-
fluences the coated surface quality. It is therefore impor-
tant to understand the flow behavior inside the pond for
the Reynolds numbers ranging from 300 to 1000, which
represent the operating conditions of these systems.
The flow characteristics in these and many other engi-
neering devices share common features with the simple
LDC system. Therefore, understanding the stability prop-
erties of flow in a LDC not only increases our knowledge of
fundamental issues but also provides the foundation for
analyzing and improving the performance of a broad class
of engineering and manufacturing systems.
On the fundamental side, a LDC is the simplest system
that can be used to study the stability properties of a con-
fined flow with closed streamlines. In fact, this is exactly

‘)Author to whom correspondenceshould be addressed.

2081 Phys. Fluids A 3 (9), September 1991 0899~8213/91 I092081 -11$02.00 @ 1991 American Institute of Physics 2081

FIG. 1. Schematic of a short-dwell coater,
the reason it was chosen by Burggraf7 and Pan and Ac-
rives* in their studies of viscous effects on confined vorti-
ces.
A. Lid-driven cavity flow
The two-dimensional LDC was first studied in detail
by Burggraf,7 who solved the Navier-Stokes equation for
flow in a square cavity for Reynolds number Re = H/v
from 0 to 400 (here, V, Z, and Y are the velocity of the lid,
width of the cavity, and the kinematic viscosity of the fluid,
respectively). Pan and Acrivos’ used LDC’s to examine
Prandtl’ and Batchelor’s’” theorem, which states that a
steady flow with closed streamlines at high Reynolds num-
ber should form an inviscid core surrounded by a thin
shear layer at the boundary. Through extensive experi-
ments, they concluded that ( 1) as Re- ~13,the flow in a
LDC with a finite aspect ratio consists of a single inviscid
core of uniform vorticity with an infinitesimally thin
boundary layer along the solid boundary, and (2) in cav-
ities with infinite depth, since the size of the primary vortex
continues to increase with Re, its core does not become
inviscid, even as Re-+ 00, or the fluid viscosity becomes
infinitesimally small-a paradoxical conclusion.
The two-dimensional cavity flow has been computed
accurately for Re up to 10 000 by several investigators,
including Ghia et al.,” Schreiber and Keller,12 and more
recently, Thompson and Ferziger I3 (maximum
Re = 5000). These studies, along with numerous other nu-
merical calculations, focus on flow in a two-dimensional
plane and do not consider the three-dimensionality of the
system.
To study the transition to turbulence in confined recir-
culating flows, Koseff and Street14 studied the three-dimen-
sional aspects of flow in a cavity for Re from 1000 to
10000. In their study, the flow starts impulsively by a
sudden acceleration of the top surface to the desired speed.
Several interesting phenomena are revealed, including a
local Taylor instability near the downstream lip during
2082 Phys. Fluids A, Vol. 3, No. 9, September 1991
start-up, and development of Taylor-Goertler-like vortices
(TGL) at the downstream secondary eddy (DSE) before
the appearance of turbulence at Re> 6000. The existence
of TGL vortices is attributed to the concave viscous layer
that forms between the primary and the DSE and their
appearance is viewed as a mechanism for a transition to
turbulence. Using cavities with different aspect ratios, Ko-
seff and Street show that because of the end-wall effects,
the size of DSE increases as Re increases from 1000 to
10 000 for the span-to-width aspect ratio (SAR) equal to
3:l; while for SAR’s of 1:l and 21 DSE reduces in size for
Re > 2000. Extensive laser Doppler anemometer (LDA)
measurements of flow in cavities with SAR less than or
equal to 1:l by Prasad and Koset? and by Bogatyrev and
Gorin16 in cavities with SAR greater than or equal to l:l,
shed light on the effects of geometry and end walls. For
SAR > l:l, the effects of SAR on turbulent flow at high Re
are less significant than at lower Re. Prasad and Koseff
conclude from their measurements that ( 1) reducing the
span increases the viscous drag from the end walls and
thereby reduces the overall velocity inside the cavity, and
(2) the major portion of the velocity fluctuations at lower
Re is due to TGL vortices.
There has also been significant progress in the numer-
ical simulation of cavity flow at high Re values. The fact
that TGL vortices appear at the DSE region is shown nu-
merically by Kim and lvloin,” Freitas et a/.,‘* Freitas and
Street,” Perng and Street,” and Iwatsu et aZ.2’With the
exception of Kim and Moin, who use periodic boundary
conditions at the end walls, all the other investigators men-
tioned above use no-slip condition for all boundaries. Fre-
itas and Street provide a detailed analysis of the three-
dimensional flow with SAR = 3:l at Re = 3200. In
addition to extensive particle track plots showing the three-
dimensionality of the flow patterns, they show temporal
variations of the TCL vortices, which agree with Koseff
and Street I4 flow visualizations and our observations dis-
cussed below. Iwatsu et al. simulate a cubic LDC flow at
Re from 100 to 4.000. They find steady solutions for Re up
to and including 2000 and unsteady solutions for
Re = 3000. They indicate that at high Re but steady how,
the significant transverse variations of flow suggest occur-
rence of TGL vortices. Ku et alz2 solve the three-dimen-
sional flow in a cubic cavity using a pseudospectral
method; but contrary to Iwatsu et al., they do not obtain
steady-state TGL vortices. Pemg and Street” also show
that TGL vortices are not steady for cavities with
SAR> 1:l.
The studies mentioned above have shown the existence
of complex hydrodynamic phenomena in this system. Ma-
jor fundamental questions have remained unanswered; ( 1)
what is the sequence of transitions or the initial bifurca-
tions in the laminar regime that lead the system toward
turbulent flow; and (2) is there a unique sequence of tran-
sitions to turbulent flow in this system? The stability char-
acteristics and the dynamics of laminar flow in this system
have virtually remained unexplored.
Recent developments and conclusions from a set of
numerical studies of flow in a grooved channel (Fig. 2) are
Aidun, Triantafillopoulos, and Benson 2082
 h
G
K7/ 0
FIG. 2. Schematic of flow in a grooved channel.
of interest to this discussion. Flow in a channel with a
rectangular groove consists of a distorted channel flow cou-
pled with a shear-driven cavity system.23 The flow in the
cavity has features similar to a LDC flow, that is, a pri-
mary eddy forms at the core with secondary eddies in the
comers. This system has been studied numerically by
Ghaddar et a1.24 and Amon and Patera using a varia-
tional spectral element method. They assume a system with
infinite span and therefore impose periodic boundary con-
ditions in the spanwise direction. One of their conclusions
is that, depending on the stability and criticality of the
primary bifurcation in a wall-bounded shear flow, the tran-
sition to turbulence could be broadband and abrupt, as in
plane Poiseuille flow, or low dimensional and ordered.
Similarly, the initial bifurcations in a LDC flow could pro-
vide the key to understanding the physics of transition to
unsteadiness and turbulence in confined flows with closed
streamlines.
By focusing on the flow states at low Reynolds number
(Re < 2000) in a LDC with a small amount of through-
flow, we show that multiple locally stable states exist and
compete with each other. This suggests that different
mechanisms for transition to turbulence may exist in this
system. Furthermore, we propose that the steady states
observed in our experiments may be identified as the de-
coupling of the nongeneric state diagram of the idealized
confined LDC system characterized by free-slip end walls.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The cavity, placed on top of a lower compartment [Fig.
3 (a)], makes contact with the roll and has width H = 5.08
cm in the direction of roll motion, depth D = 5.08 cm, and
span S = 15.24 cm transverse to the direction of roll mo-
tion. Thus the characteristic geometric parameters are 1:l
and 3: 1 for depth- and span-to-width aspect ratios, respec-
tively. The lower compartment has the same dimensions
but a depth of only 2.54 cm and serves the purpose of
feeding fluid uniformly into the cavity.
A very thin film of fluid adheres to the roll and escapes
the cavity through the downstream lip EC. This layer of
fluid is scraped off from the roll by a sharp blade down-
stream of the cavity. At the bottom of the cavity adjacent
to the GK comer, a narrow slot (3 mm wide) opens into
2083 Phys. Fluids A, Vol. 3, No. 9, September 1991
(a)
HYDRAULIC
FLUID INLET
= ARM
-.
interface between DSE and DSE prim& vortex
the primary vortex
4 S w
FIG. 3. Schematics of the experimental setup; (a) showing the coordinate
system (xg,z) and the corresponding velocity components (u,u,w); (b) a
three-dimensional view of the cavity demonstrating the roll-shaped pat-
terns of the steady-state primary mode.
the lower section that is connected to a pump and acts as a
reservoir for replenishing the fluid that escapes the cavity.
Fluid is supplied to the lower section of the cavity via
a 1.00 cm pipe tap from one side. The symmetry of the flow
patterns show that the flow through the slot into the cavity
is uniform over the span. All bounding walls of the cavity
are 12.5 mm thick, fabricated from Plexiglas. An impor-
tant feature considered in the design of the cavity assembly
is that of allowing a precisely uniform film of fluid to es-
cape downstream when the roll, which drives the flow, is
rotating. This is achieved by mounting the cavity on a
finely adjustable support plate, which can be pivoted on
two removable screw pins, one on each of the opposite
sides of the plate. The adjustable plate, in turn, is mounted
on a support frame that is hydraulically pressurized with
two air cylinders so that the cavity makes contact with a
chrome-plated roll 59.7 cm in diameter. A 1.0 cm thick
Teflon collar around the cavity lip [ABCE in Fig. 3(b)]
reduces friction and allows for smooth contact between the
cavity and the roll surface.
In addition to the cavity Reynolds number, a second
parameter that depends on the net mass flow rate m is
defined as R’ = m/,uS. Therefore when RI-0 (i.e., m-+0)
the system approaches a closed LDC. In the experiments
reported here, the value of R’ is varied from 0.5 to 1.5. In
this range, variations in R’ did not change the qualitative
behavior of the flow inside the cavity. Based on this, we
Aidun, Triantafillopoulos, and Benson 2083
 suspect that at least the qualitative behavior of the flow is
identical to a closed LDC.
All the experiments reported here contain a positive
net mass flow rate. It is difficult to reduce R' to absolute
zero. The difference between various experimental setups is
in the manner by which the small amount of lost fluid is
replenished. For example, in an alternative setup, the cav-
ity can be submerged completely into a pool of liquid and
the fluid lost from the downstream lip will then be replen-
ished from the upstream side.14’i5 When the focus is on
closed LDC Bow, then the loss in fluid is carefully mini-
mized to avoid any significant influence on the flow inside
the cavity.
The experiments are conducted with a viscous New-
tonian fluid and the suspended-particle technique is used
for flow visualization. The fluid continuum is a glycerine
and water mixture with disk-shaped high reflectance alu-
minum (20-40 pm long and -5 pm thick) or Kalliro-
scope (6 X 30X 0.07 pm) flakes. When in motion, these
particles align along the axis of principal normal strain26
and rapidly reorient themselves due to changes in the flow
pattern. The time scale for particle realignment is much
shorter than the time scale of the flow. This technique is
ideal for obtaining single images of the instantaneous state
of flow and, by utilizing a video, for observing the devel-
opment and evolution of time-periodic and unsteady flows.
The concentrations of the suspended particles in all of the
experiments reported here are less than 0.1% by weight.
Illumination of the cavity is achieved with a regular white
light concentrated on the downstream vertical wall.
Since the working fluid is Newtonian, a dilute suspen-
sion of flakes also behaves as a Newtonian fluid with an
effective viscosity, ,u,f = ,u( 1 + 2.5~~)) where p and a! are
the fluid viscosity and the volume fraction occupied by the
solid. This relation, first derived by Einstein (see Batche-
lor27) is valid when a < 0.02. A concentration of 0.1% by
weight of aluminum flakes in our experiments represents a
volume fraction a! = 0.0005, therefore peff = l.OOlp, and
for all practical purposes, the effective viscosity can be as-
sumed to be equal to the fluid viscosity.
Most of the past flow visualizations of the LDC have
used particle tracing techniques where a sheet of light is
formed to illuminate a cross-sectional plane of the flow
(for example, see Rhee et aL2*). The photographs show
particle streaks, which for a steady-state flow are essen-
tially the projection of the velocity vectors onto a two-
dimensional plane. In this investigation, we wanted to vi-
sualize the flow patterns and features that do not
necessarily remain with a group of particles. After exam-
ining several techniques (dye injection, glass fibers, and
x-ray radiography) aluminum flakes with regular white
light illumination were found to be most effective. In con-
trast to the tracer particle techniques where a light sheet is
used to extract information from a single cross-sectional
plane, here the depth of field is not necessarily uniform
throughout the plane of view, but is dependent on several
factors, such as particle concentration, illumination tech-
nique, and the flow pattern itself. Carlson et a1.26were able
to visualize the flow through the entire depth of their chan-
2084 Phys. Fluids A, Vol. 3, No. 9, September 1991
(d)
FIG. 4. Sequenceof transitionsin the primary state; (a) one-cell steady
state, Re- 500; (b) time-periodic state, Re - 9(w; (c) wavy downstream
secondary eddy starts to fold Re- 1200; (d) Goertler-like vortices appear
in the form of mushroom-shaped structures, Rez 1900.
nel, while in our experiment, the depth of view is about l-3
cm into the cavity. This provides a good view of the flow
pattern features and their cellular structure.
III. FLOW VlSUALlZATlON RESULTS
The fn-st set of experiments focused on the sequence of
transitions from steady flow to an unsteady state in the
range of Re from 100 to 2000.
We evaluated phenomena appearing in a driven cavity
with throughflow using real-time observation and photo-
graphs of flow patterns. In the first set of experiments, the
cavity Reynolds number is increased in increments by in-
creasing the speed of the roll. The basic steady-state flow
pattern, from the side endview, in a cavity with through-
flow is depicted schematically in Fig. 3 (b). Fluid dragged
downstream reaches edge EC, where most of the fluid fol-
lows wall EFNC and only a relatively small amount exits
the cavity as a thin film deposited onto the roll surface.
Flow separation occurs along the wall EFNC, resulting in
the formation of a secondary recirculation in the vicinity of
the edge FN. This is the so-termed downstream secondary
eddy (DSE), which counter-rotates with respect to the
primary eddy. In contrast, the upstream secondary vortex
does not exist in the throughflow cavity due to positioning
of the feeding stream at GK.
The above simplistic description refers to the basic
“two-dimensional” steady-state flow. In three dimensions,
the primary and downstream secondary vortices comprise
cylindrical rolls extending along the span of the cavity,
while the line JI separating the two rolls is an interface.
The focus in the first set of experiments is on the evolution
of the steady state into time-periodic and unsteady states as
Re increases.
Aidun, Triantafillopoulos, and Benson 2084
 f 800
flDryCD DD
f fb
Results
(2-D)
Numerical
I

f” I). 0 Burrgraf.
h
Boz‘
1966
&Dalton,
xna”
[ Re
c
Nallashamy & kmc
1973
1977
600

400

200
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 1
w
01
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.9 1.0
FIG. 5. Size of the downstream secondaryeddy.

FIG. 6. Flow visualization measurementsof the critical Reynolds number

All in this study are from the EFNC
the pictures for transition from steady to time-periodic Bow of the primary state
plane. Figure 4 shows four qualitatively distinct flow re- (0.5 > R'> 1.5,~(,,, = 120mPa set).
gimes as Re gradually increases. As soon as the flow starts,
a steady roll-shaped pattern featuring primary and second-
ary vortices appears in the cavity. Fig. 4(a), the cross sec- the time-periodic waves become more clearly visible.
tion of which is the familiar LDC flow [Fig. 3(a)], shows Many experiments were run with the same procedure
the primary eddy and the DSE as roll-shaped patterns. outlined above to determine the critical Reynolds number
This is the basic steady-state flow from the front view of for transition to time-periodic state using the flow visual-
the cavity with throughflow. The dark horizontal line that ization procedure outlined above. Our estimate of the crit-
appears along the span of the cavity is the separation line ical Reynolds number is between 825 to 925. The reason
between the primary and the secondary downstream rolls we give a range for the critical Re is because it is difficult
depicted schematically in Fig. 3(b) as line JI. Both the to judge when the flow becomes time periodic. At onset,
separation and the reattachment points of the flow on the the amplitude of the growing disturbance mode is small
front and bottom walls, respectively, remain stationary up and difficult to detect. Twenty tests were run at a viscosity
to Re-825. range between 70-80 mPa set and the average critical Rey-
The separation line in Fig. 4(a) is straight and almost nolds number was about 870. Twenty tests were also run at
parallel to the lower boundary everywhere, except near the a viscosity range between 95-120 mPa sec. The average
side walls where it curves upward. It is symmetric with critical Reynolds number within that range was 880. The
respect to the centerplane QRST. To confirm that this line minimum Re for the transition in all the experiments was
represents the demarcation between the two primary and 825. Figure 6 presents the experimental data as the fluid
secondary recirculating rolls, the growth of its character- viscosity was increased from 70 mPa set up to the maxi-
istic length scale (i.e., the distance d of the separation line mum value, pmax, of 120 mPa sec.
from the bottom boundary) is compared with other exper-
imental and numerical results. The value of d/D was visu-
ally estimated by measuring the distance of the separation
line from the edge of the bottom wall at the vertical cen-
terline, SR, which is then normalized by the cavity depth,
D, and plotted in Fig. 5 along with results from other
investigators. The height d increases sharply with Re up to
400; thereafter its rate of growth reduces substantially as
its value reaches a plateau. Under the standard conditions
of experimentation, the trend observed here is in good
agreement with other investigators.
In most cases during the beginning of the experiment,
the fluid is allowed to stabilize for about 10 min at the
Reynolds number of 500. At this stage, the primary and
the downstream secondary eddies are fully visible and
share a smooth interface across the span. The lid speed is
increased in intervals of 3 min by 1 m/min. The primary
and downstream secondary eddies continue to be stable up 0.7! *,-I-
880 900 920 940 960 980 1000 1020
to a Reynolds number of about 825. As the Reynolds num-
ber is increased beyond 825, small-amplitude time-periodic Re
waves appear on the DSE starting out in the middle of the
DSE and extending toward the end walls. As Re increases, FIG. 7. Oscillation period of the primary state (TV = 3 set).

2085 Phys. Fluids A, Vol. 3, No. 9, September 1991 Aidun, Triantafillopoulos, and Benson 2085
 FIG. 8. A schematic demonstration of the time-periodic vortex sup&m-
posed on the downstream secondary eddy.
The critical oscillation period at onset, r. is about 3
set and decreases, as shown in Fig. 7, by about 20% at
Re = 1000, where a second transition takes place. It ap-
pears that in the time-periodic mode, spiral-shaped vortices
superimpose on the primary and the downstream second-
ary eddies traveling from the symmetry plane outward to
the side walls [Fig. 4(b)]. A schematic diagram of these
vortices is presented in Fig. 8. The disturbance structure
near onset is more visible on the DSE rather than the
primary eddy. The motion of these vortices is similar to the
rotation of a spring around its axis. Pairs of vortices are
generated at the centerline and each member of a pair
accelerates toward the end walls. It is interesting to note
the similarity between the behavior at the onset of the
time-periodic state, presented in Fig. 8, and the spanwise
motion of spiral-shaped vortices at Re = 5000, illustrated
by Kaseff and Street ’s 14(b) Fig. 7, where the flow is un-
steady and nonperiodic.
As the Reynolds number approaches 1000, the separa-
tion line between the primary and secondary recirculations
becomes irregular, featuring wavy patterns like the ones in
Fig. 4(c). Discrete vertical spikes appear simultaneously
inside the DSE and in the middle of the crest. Irregularity
of the separation line and the frequency of the waves’ ap-
pearance increases with the Reynolds number Re. At Re in
the range of 1000-1300, traveling waves are engaged in a
rapid movement that appears as oscillation of wave crests
along the span of the cavity. Spikes inside the DSE ap-
proach the end walls and seemingly bounce back, thus
generating the perception of a complex spanwise move-
ment throughout the whole cavity. It is clear that at this
stage the dynamics of the flow are more complex than a
periodic system with a single frequency.
Upon continuous increase of the roll speed, the spikes
grow small crowns at their tops, which give them a mush-
roomlike form, like the one depicted in Fig. 4(d). These
are most likely the TGL vortices reported in previous stud-
ies.14Originally mushrooms move about a stationary posi-
tion keeping their points of contact fixed on the bottom
wall. At this point, the structures in the DSE interact with
the primary recirculation by creating vertical ribs between
mushrooms, which extend to the full depth of the cavity.
As the speed slowly increases, the flank and stem of the
mushrooms oscillate in phase. Eventually mushroomlike
structures fluctuate, causing the flanks to rapidly alternate
2086 Phys. Fluids A, Vol. 3, No. 9, September 1991
w I
FIG. 9. Multiple stable (a) two-cell, (b) three-cell, and (c) four-cell
secondary steady states competing with the primary (one-cell) steady
state of Fig. 4(a).
from left to right, thus giving the appearance they are dis-
appearing into their neighbors and reappearing a short
while later.
In general, these mushrooms are nonuniform in size
and have irregular spacing. Their size shrinks with increas-
ing Re but their number remains unchanged. Six mush-
roomlike structures are counted across the cavity in the
whole range of Re tested, i.e., the TGL vortices having an
average wavelength of half the cavity width (i.e., 2.54 cm),
as shown in Fig. 4(d). This agrees with the numerical
simulations of Kim and Moini7 at Re = 1000, which show
two pairs of TGL vortices per cavity width. The wave-
length decreases with increasing Re. This was shown by
Koseff and Street,‘4(a) who observed eight pairs of TGL
vortices at Re = 3000, and 11 pairs at Re = 6000, and later
confirmed numerically by Freitas and Street,” who in their
numerical simulation at Re = 3200 obtain eight pairs in
addition to end wall eddies.
The second set of experiments concentrates on the
steady-state regime at low Re. The roll-shaped flow of Fig.
4(a) consistently appears when the lid speed increases
gradually from zero. We found that when the lid suddenly
decelerates from the unsteady state (Re- 2000) to a low
speed (Re < 500), however, the steady roll-shaped primary
state [Fig. 4(a)] may or may not recover. In its place
steady cellular patterns with unique features may stabilize.
We have identified three secondary steady states that com-
pete with each other and with the primary state. The front
view (i.e., through the CEFN plane) of these structures is
shown in Fig. 9. This behavior of the system shows that the
primary steady state is globally stable only at very low Re;
it becomes globally unstable to finite-amplitude distur-
bances before destabilizing locally to infinitesimal time-pe-
riodic disturbances. It is well known that in the limit as Re
approaches zero, the only possible flow is the primary
(Stokes) state. Therefore the secondary steady states,
which are described below, can exist only at a finite value
of Re.
Aidun, Triantafillopoulos, and Benson 2086
center
points
saddle point
t (3-CELL)
saddle point
FIG. 10. The critical points in a two-dimensional cavity flow.
Due to the complex nature of the three-dimensional
flow patterns that are observed in the experiments, it is
difficult to conceptually visualize their structures. Very of-
ten, two patterns that appear different due to different vi-
sualization techniques used in the experiment, may, in fact,
represent identical flow states. A topological description of
the flow patterns based on critical point theory29 provides
a framework and methodology for avoiding confusion. A
three-dimensional flow pattern can have one or more crit-
ical points, which are defined as points in the flow field
where the fluid velocity goes to zero (stagnation or sepa-
ration points) and the slope of the streamlines becomes
indeterminate. Several types of critical points are identified
depending on how the streamlines form.
A flow field can be uniquely characterized once all of
its critical points are correctly identified. In an experimen-
tal approach, as in this study, these points are identified by
tracing the streamlines with various visualization tech-
niques. In a computational approach, however, a Taylor
expansion of the velocity, in terms of the space coordinates
and subsequent analysis of the leading terms, provides
complete information about the points.
For illustrative purposes, let us first analyze the two-
dimensional lid-driven cavity flow. Because of its limited
degree of freedom, a two-dimensional flow pattern can only
consist of centers and saddles. Each of the primary and
secondary vortices forms a center that essentially consists
of a stagnation point at the center of closed streamlines.
The interface between the primary and secondary vortices
is a separation line that connects two saddle points on the
no-slip boundary (wall) of the cavity, as shown in Fig. 10.
Therefore neglecting the tertiary eddies, a two-dimensional
cavity flow contains four center points (the primary eddy
plus three secondary vortices), six saddle points (two for
each secondary vortex) on the no-slip walls, and four quar-
ter saddles at the corners.
The analysis of a three-dimensional pattern is consid-
erably more involved. It is usually more productive to con-
sider the projection of a three-dimensional pattern onto a
two-dimensional plane. Let us first examine the three-di-
mensional pattern of Fig. 9 (a). Here, the flow is symmetric
with respect to the centerline of the cavity. The symmetry
2087 Phys. Fluids A, Vol. 3, No. 9, September 1991
no-slipboundary
saddle points
(b)
(4-CELL) Cc)
FIG. 11. Topological characterization of the two-dimensional projection
of the three-dimensional patterns based on critical-point theory. The (a)
two-cell, (b) three-cell, and (c) four-cell structures correspond to the
three patterns presented by Figs. 7(a), 7(b), and 7(c), respectively.
line consists of two saddle points; one at the no-slip bottom
wall (at the center of the bottom plane), and the other one
about the center of the cavity, as shown in Fig. 11 (a). Note
the difference between a complete saddle point inside the
flow and one formed on a no-slip boundary. There are two
stable foci on each side of the symmetry line, and each side
wall contains a no-slip boundary saddle. Also, the bottom
wall contains two additional boundary saddle points on
each side of the symmetry line. Thus the first three-dimen-
sional flow pattern consists of one saddle, five no-slip
boundary saddle points, four corner saddle points, and four
stable foci. We shall refer to this flow pattern as a two-cd
structure. The number of cells in the flow is determined by
the number of full saddle points. A full saddle point exists
between two adjacent cells.
The second pattern, Fig. 9(b), is a three-cell structure
where each ceil contains two stable foci and a no-slip
boundary saddle at the bottom border. There is a saddle
and a no-slip boundary saddle between each cell, and a
no-slip boundary saddle on each side wall. Therefore the
three-cell structure contains six stable foci, two saddles,
four corner saddles, and seven no-slip boundary saddles, as
illustrated in Fig. 11 (b). Similarly, the four-cell structure
[Fig. 9(c)] contains eight stable foci, three saddle points,
Aidun, Triantafillopoulos, and Benson 2087
four corner saddles, and nine no-slip boundary saddle
points [Fig. 11 (c)J The foci in the four-cell structure are
not as clearly distinguishable as the ones in the other two
flow structures. Our experimental technique does not allow
visualization of the cross-sectional plane of the Aow pat-
terns in Fig. 9. However, the cross sections of the flow at
various spans could consist of a deformed primary cell and
a DSE, similar to the primary state or the flow shown in
Fig. 10 of Prasad et ~1.~’

IV. DISCUSSION
Since the stability properties of LDC flows have re-
mained unexplored, at this time we outline the expected
behavior of LDC flows based on fundamental principles
applied to confined systems such as the circular Couette or
Rayleigh-B6nard convectian flows. Assuming that these
principles also apply here, this will provide a frame of
reference for discussion and interpretation of the flow vi-
sualization results.
A. Expected qualitative behavior of flow in a
confined LDC
Let us begin with the simplest case-a LDC with as-
pect ratio H/D = I and infinite span. The Navier-Stokes
and continuity equations given by
u,~+ Re(u*Vu) =Vp + V2u, in 0,
V*u=O, in 0,
govern the flow in the cavity domain defined by 0. The
velocity vector, u, pressure, p, and time, t, are scaled with
the lid velocity, V, pressure scale, pvV/D, and time scale,
P/Y, respectively, and the cavity depth, 0, is used as the
length scale. The Reynolds number, Re, defined as VWv,
is the only parameter in this problem. The boundary con-
ditions are no-slip walls, given by
ulan,= ( V,QO) and UIJO - ZL,= (QW),
where Xl is the boundary of a and XX, represents the top
surface. At a sufficiently small value of Re, the solution to
this system represents a two-dimensional (2-D) flow given
by
U2-D= [~(-%~>&,~>,ol*
This solution is available for creep flows in closed form
by Pan and Acrivos,* and in numerical form for a wide
range of Re by many investigators (for example, see Boz-
eman and Dalton;31 or Nallasamy and Krishna Prasad3*).
In practice, however, this solution becomes unstable at a
critical Reynolds number, R, and most likely gives rise to
a steady cellular flow through a pitchfork bifurcation. The
value of R, and the wavelength of the critical mode, h,,
depend on the aspect ratio, H/D. The three-dimensional
(3-D) solution near onset can be approximated by sepa-
rating variables in the linearized disturbance equation and
using trigonometric representation in the z direction. The
critical disturbance at onset is then given by
id= [u’(x,y) cos Z,v’(x,y) sin Z,w’(x,y) sin Z],
FIG. 12. The state diagram for an ideal lid-driven cavity system with
free-slip end walls.
where Z = 2n(z - a)//Z, /z is the wavelength of the peri-
odic cellular flow, and a represents an arbitrary phase of
the disturbance structure.
Now consider a cavity with finite span, L, and free-slip
end walls. The boundary conditions at the end wall planes,
Xl,, are given by
au au
w=O and z=z=o on do,. (2’)
(14 Here also the steady two-dimensional solution (3) sat-
(lb) isfies the boundary conditions (2’). The bifurcating 3-D
solution at onset can be represented by (4) with the eigen-
function modified to m-z/L, where n is the wave number of
the destabilizing disturbance structure inside the container,
and the phase angle, a, being no longer arbitrary, is set to
zero. Modes representing an even or odd number of cellu-
lar patterns can become critical and destabilize the 2-D
base solution, as shown in Fig. 12. Here the vertical (hor-
izontal) plane represents solutions with an odd (even)
(2) number of cellular patterns.
Since the slip condition at the end wall given by (2’) is
also a symmetry condition, the similarity mapping used by
Aiduns3 applies. Therefore, by calculating the stability
boundary for a single cell pattern, R,‘(L), the entire sta-
(3)
FIG. 13. An exampIe of the stability boundary showing the similarity
relation between the corresponding critical modes as a function of the
(4) span L.

2088 Phys. Fluids A, Vol. 3, No. 9, September 1991 Aidun, Triantafiliopoulos, and Benson 2088
 time-periodic
. .**
. .*
FIG. 14. Decoupling of a pitchfork bifurcation for a three-dimensional
lid-driven cavity.
bility boundary for the initial bifurcation point can be
mapped using transformation
R,“(L) =R,‘(L/n), where n= 1,2,... . (5)
The expected form of the stability boundary predicted by
Eq. (5) is shown in Fig. 13.
Let us next discuss the real LDC system where the
no-slip condition applies to the end wall, as well as any
other solid boundary. The no-slip condition generates an
Eckman-type viscous layer at the end walls, which results
in a radially inward motion of the fluid toward the center
of the primary eddy near the wall. This can be demon-
strated by application of the radial component of Euler’s
equation to the circular streamlines near the side walls.
The radial pressure gradient, ap/dr, is balanced by the
centrifugal acceleration pU’/r, where U is the circumfer-
ential velocity of the fluid. For a fixed pressure gradient,
velocity U becomes smaller as the fluid particles approach
the end walls. Therefore to keep the balance, fluid particles
must follow a circular path with a smaller radius r.
[B&Iewadt’s34 solution (see Schlichting35) of a semi-infi-
nitely long eddy contacting a stationary solid surface
shows an overshoot in tangential velocity near the wall,
which has also been verified experimentally and would ap-
proximate the flow here.] To keep the mass balance, the
fluid at the center of the primary eddy near the wall is then
forced away toward the center symmetry plane where it
flows radially outward and completes a loop. The three-
dimensionality of the flow is vividly apparent, even at Re as
low as 100, where the Davis and Mallinson36 numerical
solution shows this general flow pattern. Also, extensive
particle track results of Freitas and Street I9 and Iwatsu ef
al.” clearly show the three-dimensional character of the
primary state.
To construct the bifurcation diagram for the 3-D cav-
ity flow, we outline the following principles: ( 1) the pitch-
fork bifurcation diagrams of the ideal flow in Fig. 12 are
not generic and therefore almost any perturbation of the
system will change their qualitative appearance; (2) there
exists a positive real number E, where, for Re < e, the so-
lution to the governing equations along with the no-slip
2089 Phys. Fluids A, Vol. 3, No. 9, September 1991
time-periodic
, .*’
.
.*
FIG. 15. An example of a possible state diagram for a lid-driven cavity
with throughflow.
boundary conditions is unique and unconditionally sta-
ble;37 and (3) the Leray-Schauder (L-S) degree theory
applies, that is, except at bifurcation points, the total num-
ber of solution branches at a given value of Re is odd and
the summation of the L-S indices for stable ( - 1) and
unstable ( + 1) solutions will be unity.38
Given these facts, and considering the addition of no
slip as a perturbation of the ideal system, we expect the
pitchfork bifurcation to decouple in the standard manner
represented in Fig. 14. The decoupling generates two stable
steady states and one unstable branch through a turning
point satisfying the conditions outlined above. The first
steady branch that represents the only solution near
Re = 0 is the primary state, and it represents a three-di-
mensional flow as soon as it forms at Re = 0 + . The other
stable solution, the secondary mode, represents a second
steady flow that destabilizes through a turning point at
Re = RTP. The secondary state can exist only at
Re > RTP and is replaced by the primary state for lower
values. The other cellular branches of the ideal system of
Fig. 12 also decouple and result in additional locally stable
modes. W e propose that the patterns in Fig. 9 represent the
decoupled secondary modes resulting from perturbations
of the cellular patterns of the ideal system.
The bifurcation sequence and the stability characteris-
tics of flow in a LDC proposed above remain to be proved
or modified through rigorous analysis. To study problems
that are a subclass of the LDC system (e.g., coating and
other surface application systems) requires a fundamental
understanding of flow in a LDC. At this time, we base the
discussion of our experimental results on the above theory.
B. Discussion of the experimental results
To discuss the experimental results, we assume that the
throughflow serves only as a perturbation of the LDC; that
is, we assume that all of the principles outlined in Sec.
IV A also apply here. Furthermore, we note that the bifur-
cation diagram of Fig. 14 is generic and therefore pertur-
bations of it do not necessarily result in qualitative
changes.
Aidun, Triantafillopoulos, and Benson 2089
 Given the above facts and assumptions as a frame-
work, we can identify the sequence of states in Fig. 4 as
transitions in the primary mode. Figure 4(a) represents
the steady-state primary mode, which consists of primary
and secondary corner eddies. This state, which we refer to
interchangeably as either the primary state or the one-cell
pattern, is the LDC flow, which has been studied in the
past, Our flow visualization experiments (which include
high-speed cinemaphotography) show that this state loses
stability at Re - 825 and gives rise to a time-periodic flow
[Fig. 4(b)], as shown by the bifurcation diagram in Fig. 15.
It appears that the disturbance structure is in the form of a
spiral vortex that superimposes on the base state and is
responsible for this transition.
Possible mechanisms of transition to time-periodic
flow include a loss of existence with concomitant loss of
stability or a loss of local stability of the steady solution
(Hopf bifurcation). The latter mechanism can be a super-
critical or a subcritical transition. Although we show a
supercritical bifurcation in Figs. 14 and 15, we note that
flow visualization experiments cannot accurately deter-
mine the character of this transition. We have observed
some hysteresis in our experimental observations of this
transition; however, we are not convinced whether this is
physical or due to human visualization error.
Although flow visualization methods used in these ex-
periments cannot provide the detailed information re-
quired to establish the higher-order transitions, some in-
formation can be extracted through observations. At
Re- 1000, the interface between the primary and the DSE
becomes wavy and the spiral-shaped vortex on the DSE
appears to fold over itself and develop spikes [Fig. 4(c)].
At higher Re, the flow changes character in the region of
DSE, a clear signal of higher-order transitions. In the
neighborhood of Re - 2000, mushroom-shaped structures
form and move rapidly in alternating positions. These
structures are almost identical to the cross-sectional view
of Goertler vortices observed and recorded in boundary
layer flow over concave surfaces (for example, see Peerho-
ssaini and Wesfreid39). These vortices in LDC systems
were first observed by Koseff and Street,r4 who focus on
the transition to turbulence that they show occuring at
Re> 6000. These and other studies have focused only on
the primary state of flow presented schematically in Fig. 3.
In fact, to our knowledge, secondary stable modes have
never been reported in this system.
Our experiments show that in a LDC system with
EI/D = 1 and S/D = 3, and with a small amount of
throughflow, the primary stable steady state [Fig. 4(a)],
which is the only state that exists at Reynolds number
close to zero, becomes globally unstable and competes with
at least three other secondary steady-state modes, each
having a unique and qualitatively different flow pattern, as
shown in Fig. 9. All these patterns remain symmetric with
respect to the midplane by forming two-, three-, and four-
cell structures. We identify these states with the decoupled
n-cell branches of the ideal system (Fig. 12) that may form
and mutate in various ways. An example of one of the
possible arrangements is shown in Fig. 15.
2090 Phys. Fluids A, Vol. 3, No. 9, September 1991
The globally unstable feature of throughflow LDC sys-
tems explains a practical difficulty that has puzzled the
users of short-dwell coaters for some time. It is well known
that short-dwell coaters do not always behave the same
under identical operating conditions. The possibility of
multiple flow states in the pond of these coaters may ex-
plain their nonunique behavior.
v. CQNCLUSIQNS
Multiple steady states have been observed in a lid-
driven, throughflow rectangular cavity. The primary mode
(one-cell pattern) that forms at Re = 0 + , contrary to the
previous belief, loses stability to finite-amplitude distur-
bances at finite Reynolds number and competes with at
least three other secondary steady states (two-, three-, and
four-cell patterns). At Re-825, the primary mode be-
comes locally unstable and gives rise to a time-periodic
state. This time-periodic state destabilizes at Re- 1000.
In principle, if the addition of flow through an other-
wise confined LDC is only a perturbation of the closed
system, then the generic nature of Fig. 15 suggests that
multiple stable states may also exist in a closed LDC.
Portions of this work were used by NGT as partial
fulfillment of the requirement for the Ph.D. degree at the
Institute of Paper Science and Technology.
This research was supported by an industrial consor-
tium through the Institute of Paper Science and Technol-
ogy. Support for the equipment provided by Beloit Corpo-
ration is gratefully acknowledged.
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