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The torus-shaped rotating space station, familiar from science fiction, is a way to produce artificial gravity in space. Would the fluid dynamics of gas in a rotating torus cause a person standing inside to notice any airflow?

It's noted (for example Artificial gravity on rotating spaceship?) that inside such a space station the air would rotate with the structure. It's clear that this rotation would be the main motion of the air. however would the variation in centrifugal force or other properties of fluid flow inside a torus cause a secondary motion So that a person standing inside the torus would experience this secondary motion as wind.

Several websites mention fluid flow, for example, Wikipedia notes that fluids can freely move in a vortex. And other sites deal with this https://www.gamedev.net/topic/680801-flying-inside-a-rotating-torus-space-station-artificial-gravity/ mentions "There will be airflow caused by the rotating torus. Laminar flow, oh the joy. That means fastest flow near the floor with quadratic or something falloff". I have also unsuccessfully tried googling for "gas flow inside a torus"

Qmechanic
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James K
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1 Answers1

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No, the atmosphere will rotate with the space station, just like Earth's atmosphere.

Pirx
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