We consider the centrifugal instability of the viscous fluid flow between concentric circular cylinders in the small-gap limit. The amplitude of the Taylor vortex is allowed to depend on a slow time variable, a slow axial variable, and the polar angle $\theta$. It is shown that the amplitude of the vortex cannot, in general, be described by a single amplitude equation. In the absence of any slow axial variations it is shown that a Taylor vortex remains stable to wavy vortex perturbations.

• Received 21 October 1983

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.29.2921