Effects of circumstanciel curvature and radial stratification of Stewartson E1/3 layers in a rapidly rotating gas

In UF6 centrifuges there is, due to the strong radial variation of the density field, a strong variation of the local Ekman number between the axis of rotation and the periphery. At the periphery, the local Ekman number is very small but near the center, this quantity is not exceedingly small. This means that Stewartson layers near the center of a centrifuge are usually rather thick and are thus affected by the circumferential curvature. Such layers are also affected by the radial variation of the density field. These two effects are examined for a Stewartson layer of thickness E1/3, which is driven by an axisymmetric ring source and a concentric ring sink. A perturbation solution is given for the case when the effects of the circumferential curvature and the variation of the basic density field are weak.