Effect of fast rotation on pressure fluctuations and Taylor–Görtler-like vortices in channel flows

In this paper, the pressure field is decomposed into rotation-induced and convection-induced components to analyze the effects of streamwise system rotation on the pressure fluctuations and the transport of Reynolds stresses. We show analytically that the system rotation acts as a “linear amplifier”, which converts high-wavenumber low-amplitude streamwise vorticity fluctuations into low-wavenumber high-amplitude pressure fluctuations, and facilitates the growth of streamwise-elongated Taylor–Görtler-like (TGL) vortices. A new set of transport equations in the spectral space is derived to study the budget balance of velocity-spectrum tensor at different wavelengths. The mechanisms underlying the generation of TGL vortices are explained through the analyses of the budget balance of Reynolds stresses and energy spectra.