The transition to weak turbulence via spatiotemporal intermittency has been studied in the Taylor-Dean system when the inner cylinder is fixed and only the outer cylinder is rotating. The spatiotemporal intermittency regime is characterized by the coexistence of laminar domains and turbulent patches for the same value of the control parameter. The transition is supercritical, but a particular boundary condition induces an imperfection. Statistical analysis of the spatiotemporal intermittency shows that the distribution of laminar domains by widths follows a power law decay near the onset, while it is exponential for higher values of the control parameter. The exponential distribution of the laminar domains has a definite threshold near which the correlation lengths and correlation times of laminar and turbulent domains diverge, reinforcing the analogy with second-order phase transitions. The exponents measured near the critical points in this experiment differ from those observed in other systems, thus showing that the spatiotemporal intermittency is not universal in character. © 1996 The American Physical Society.

• Received 31 August 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.53.3495